Published: Friday, 19th March, 2010 11:01am

Road to nowhere - anger over council's actions

Medwyn Road in West Linton

A FURIOUS war of words has erupted over a planned development for West Linton.

And the raging dispute has been taken all the way to the Scottish Government.

Agents acting on behalf of developer Ian Richardson, who wants to build houses on land off Medwyn Road, have accused Scottish Borders Council's planning department of being in 'disrepute'.

Mr Richardson's original bid to build on the land, submitted in June 2008, was turned down by the local authority.

But his planning agent, Malcolm Smith, now claims the local authority committed 'an abuse of its powers'.

The application was for a residential development of six houses at the site which was then latterly reduced to either three or four houses.

The plans drew much local opposition from nearby residents and also received no support from West Linton Community Council.

Richardson submitted his proposal after the site was included as part of the Scottish Borders Council Local Plan process - being within the village boundary and therefore suitable for residential development.

However planners ruled against the proposal stating that no development on the site was acceptable.

In his appeal to Ministers, Malcolm Smith states: "He (Mr Richardson) felt that the whole planning process was in disrepute as on the one hand the Reporter's assessment leading to the local plan boundary alteration had clearly accepted the principle of the development and this underlay the local plan position,

'while on the other hand, in his view as a result of some strong representations within the wider area, Scottish Borders Council has sought to ignore that and in effect state that no development on the site was acceptable."

On December 16, Richardson submitted a Notice of Review to SBC, only to find the next day December 17, that the site had been served with a Tree Preservation Order by the council.

Malcolm Smith said: "This is another example of Scottish Borders Council simply ignoring the development plan and the reasons for its designations/allocations and basing decisions on adhoc matters which have already been adequately and appropriately assessed. It appears as an abuse of its powers."

Scottish Borders Council, now has 21 days to respond to the appeal, before a Reporter appointed by Scottish Ministers decides on the case.

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Mark McDavid
Unregistered User
Mar 22 10 22:34
Comment: 9713

Re Carnethy Application.

Road to nowhere – I don't think so. The idea that land included in the village boundary automatically makes it suit able for development is absurd - otherwise every one could build on their back lawns.

There is absolutely no support for the Carnethy development from SBC, the community council or local residents. The reasons are very clear and are supported by planning law and the local plan.

In recent years all applications made for development on Medwyn Road have been justifiably refused based on increased traffic on what is a beautiful tree lined country road - a village amenity, very popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, and horse riders alike. The proposed site is a beautiful wood behind a line of houses – building there would be unequivocal "back development" with inadequate access and would destroy an important natural habitat easily worthy of the tree preservation order.

SBC have acted correctly and if an appeal is granted on a technicality then I expect that the Scottish Government, correctly advised by SBC, will make a decision within the law that supports the wishes of two levels of local government and local residents – without wasting any more tax payers money.

Regards

Mark McDavid

West Linton
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