Please take a moment to help us object to this discriminatory church's planning application
Hi everyone,
Earlier this year you gave us amazing support in our fight to stop a church that preaches prejudice and discrimination from building in the middle of our diverse and family focused community. After months of ignoring our questions and treating us with contempt, they have now lodged an application for planning permission to coincide with the start of the summer holidays, no doubt hoping to catch us all at a time when other priorities will limit us speaking out against them.
We badly need your help again please!
At the moment the church have many more supportive comments than we do objections, with their and other local congregations to call upon. It takes less than a minute of your time to record an objection. We've noted below a template you can copy and paste into the box, and obviously you can amend it if you wish.
If you live in the local area we are particularly asking for your help again as every objection from the local community counts the strongest.
Please, please, please help us send a message to this prejudicial and discriminatory group and the people who have allowed them to get this close to building amongst us and across the road from our primary school.
Thank you.
Below is the link to the application, where you can post your comment in objection, and the template:
The application is contrary to the LDP (in particular 3.13, 3.31, 3.35, 3.36.4, 4.47, 5.11, 5.49, 5.52, 5.54.3, 5.76, 5.79, 5.80.1, 5.92.3, 5.92.5, 5.95.1, 5.95.6) and masterplan, which never envisaged a building occupying this land that would require inwards travel of up to 300 people.
The proposal is contrary to Designing Streets, Supplementary Guidance SG02 – Neighbourhood Design, the National Roads Development Guide, and Planning Advice Notes 75 and 78.
The streets were not designed to cater for such concentrated movement or parking of traffic, and cannot now be amended to. 27 spaces are proposed, of which many are already in use by residents. Scottish Government statistics say the average car journey consists of 1.59 people, providing for up to 188 cars entering the area en masse, most of which with nowhere obvious to park. A serious safety risk would arise and community movement by cycling and walking would be discouraged. This is of particular concern in our family community, where there are a large number of children using the streets, whose safety must be paramount. The LDP targets addressing existing parking and traffic issues in Larbert, not adding to them, which is what this proposal would achieve.
The land is the sole piece of community access land available in the heart of our community, defined as a Local Centre in the LDP. As your David Paterson said “Whatever proposals come forward, it is considered that proposals should include a significant degree of public access and community use provision, whatever that may be.” I wholeheartedly agree. The land is for everyone in our community. None of the applicant’s 12 directors are residents of our community, nor is the majority of their congregation. Their proposal is first and foremost to use the land for their benefit. Little is known about their community offering, as they have refused to enter into any dialogue with us about it or even confirm if we could all use it. These are clearly not the actions of a party who genuinely wish to offer our community what we have always been promised from that land and what the LDP and masterplan requires.
All parties forming the owners/development consortium have been asked to provide details of the “extensive marketing” of the land they claim has taken place. They have either ignored or refused that request. There is no evidence that the land has been thoroughly marketed, certainly since removal of the ruined façade, which significantly increases its marketability due to reduced construction costs, to include tax benefits.
I would like to see the land developed, either as always intended, or as a greenspace/playpark. Whatever goes there, it should be a prerequisite that its primary function is for the use and enjoyment of every person in our community, rather than as a secondary function for an applicant who has made no attempt to communicate or integrate with us.