Erection Of 2 No Houses with Detached Garages, Formation of Access and Associated Parking, Replacement Boundary Wall and Landscaping, and the Removal of Protected Trees at Land to The North of Cemetery Lodge Dollar Road, Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire

This petition is in relation to the above proposal as follows:

There was a previous planning application for a care home facility on this site that was approved with conditions.  This submission seeks to completely alter the form and nature of development of this site.  The fact that a separate form of development was considered ought to carry no weight in this instance and this proposal be considered on its own merits.  It is accordingly maintained by this Community Council that this proposal is not acceptable for the following reasons:

1.    The land is shown within the current Development Plan for the area as “safeguarded open space”.  The applicants state in their application form that it is vacant land; which it is not.  This is deliberately misleading.  In any event, the land ought to be enhanced to serve its current purpose as a community asset in amenity being largely within an area designated as a Tree Preservation Order with blanket coverage for nearly the entire area of the application;

2.    Accordingly, ‘1’ above reflects that the proposal is contrary to the Development Plan for the area and ought to be resisted as it is harmful to public amenity and would create a loss of safeguarded open space and with buildings in too close proximity to mature trees;

3.    A number of trees are shown to be removed.  This is unacceptable and would be injurious to public amenity there.  The area is a valuable and well used area of public open space by locals.  This local asset would be lost if this type of development went ahead.  It was a children’s play area many years ago and was the only one in this neighbourhood at Sandyknowe;

4.    The proposal shows a layout that appears to indicate that the access and access roads could provide the opportunity to build even more homes on-site and is being retained as an option, ie the layout drawing shows the site outlined in RED with other land owned by the applicant shown delineated in BLUE.  Clearly, if this proposal is approved there is opportunity to build more units on the site at a later date, ie an intensification of use.  This is not acceptable;

5.    The application does not indicate the form of drainage proposed for the site, and Scottish Water indicate clearly in their letter that they require fuller details before determining whether the site can be drained properly or not;

6.    The proposed access is not favoured by the council’s roads engineers, and we agree that it presents a serious risk to the safety of the general public in that vicinity to the future.  It would potentially be a risk to people and current movement patterns there;

7.    Whilst there are other matters of some specific detail that concern us, it is maintained that these compelling material planning matters indicate adequately that the proposal is not acceptable.