The leader of West Lothian Council has admitted he is "stunned" after the Scottish Government overturned six local planning decisions.
They included the controversial extension to the Glen Turner Distillery site increasing the number of maturation warehouses from 2 to 21, despite fears it could lead to a black fungus covering local homes, and proposals by builders to move planned affordable homes to a site not allocated for housing in Mossend, West Calder.
Of 12 items on the agenda for the July meeting of the Development Management Committee (DMC), Item 11 detailed the six cases where appeals against the council had been upheld by a Reporter working for the Scottish Government’s Division of Environmental and Planning Appeals (DPEA).
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“I’m stunned”, council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick told the meeting.
“It doesn’t make for good reading, “ admitted Craig McCorriston, the Head of Planning.
Other agenda items detailed a new appeal against the council’s refusal of a park and ride car park in the village of Kirknewton which has gone to the DPEA, and request for written evidence in an appeal against the council’s refusal of detailed planning permission for homes in Sibbald’s Brae, Bathgate. Both were refused by the council in the last six months.
On some of the latest appeals upheld developers were required to make contributions to town centre improvements and cemetery provision, and on others not.
Mr McCorriston said: “It does not make for good reading from an officer’s perspective and I’m sure from a councillor’s perspective as well. These are predominantly all appeals against the decision of both officers and committee and it’s disappointing that six appeals there that have gone through contrary to the council’s and officers’ decisions.
“Slightly more worrying is the inconsistency across the decisions. So we have a list of appeals here where Reporters are taking differing views in interpretation of council policy. It’s an extremely disappointing position, I have to say.”
Mr McCorriston said the Mossend application had been refused by the council because Walker Homes had made a separate allocation for affordable homes on a site not allocated for housing and had sought to put more mainstream housing on the allocated housing site . The applications relate to a major development on the fringe of West Calder.
He said that the Reporter had accepted the argument for moving the affordable homes because the council had not demonstrated that enough land was set aside for housing in the county.
The decisions of Reporters at planning appeals is final. It can only be challenged through costly legal processes. All councils in Scotland have been promised new, more clearly defined, planning laws this summer determining an agreed formula for allocating land for development. These have yet to appear.
The committee agreed with a request by chair Councillor Stuart Borrowman for a report on the decisions.
Councillor Borrowman said: “Rather than go into every last dot and comma of these decisions would it be appropriate for Craig to circulate a note to all members . I think we need to hear more about this and reflect on it.
“There are larger issues here that need to be looked at and if it is going to keep happening we’ll need to take it into account.”
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