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MINUTES of MEETING of PLANNING, PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND LICENSING COMMITTEE held in the BRUICHLADDICH VILLAGE HALL, BRUICHLADDICH, ISLE OF ISLAY on MONDAY, 29 JUNE 2015 Present: Councillor David Kinniburgh (Chair) Councillor Rory Colville Councillor Donald MacMillan Councillor Robin Currie Councillor Roderick McCuish Councillor George Freeman Councillor Alex McNaughton Councillor Neil MacIntyre Councillor James McQueen Councillor Robert G MacIntyre Councillor Richard Trail Attending: Charles Reppke, Head of Governance and Law Richard Kerr, Major Applications Team Leader Simon Coughlin, CE, Bruichladdich Distillery (Applicant) Paul Graham, Supporter Philip Neaves, Objectors’ Planning Consultant Alan Morrison, Objector George Jackson, Objector Douglas Tott, Objector 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were intimated from Councillors Gordon Blair, Alistair MacDougall and Sandy Taylor. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest. 3. BRUICHLADDICH DISTILLERY CO LTD: CONSTRUCTION OF 6 NO BONDED WAREHOUSES, TOGETHER WITH DISGORGING UNIT/FILLING STORE AND WELFARE FACILITIES, FORMATION OF ACCESS ROAD, HARD STANDINGS, INSTALLATION OF SEPTIC TANK AND DRAINAGE INFRASTRUCTURE: LAND NORTH OF COULTORSAY, BRUICHLADDICH, ISLE OF ISLAY (REF: 15/00158/PP) The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. Thereafter he advised of the procedure that would be followed and the Head of Governance and Law identified those present who wished to speak. PLANNING Richard Kerr presented the application on behalf of the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services. He advised that this was a major application under the government’s Planning Hierarchy by Bruichladdich Distillery Company seeking detailed planning permission for the construction of six new bonded warehouses and an associated disgorging/filling facility and welfare facilities, construction of a private means of access, and the installation of foul and surface water drainage arrangements. As a major application the proposal was the subject of statutory pre-application consultation with the community council and the local community and the submission was accompanied by the necessary pre-application consultation report detailing the steps undertaken and the influence of the process on the final submission. The application has been the subject of local representation which prompted the Committee to continue consideration of the matter from the May Committee meeting in order to be able to hold this discretionary Local Hearing as part of the decision making process. He referred to the Officer’s report from the meeting of the 20th May, along with supplementary report No 1 which detailed consultation and contributor responses received in the interim. Having regard to the adopted Argyll and Bute Local Development Plan 2015, he indicated that the application site was primarily contained within ‘Rural Opportunity Area’ with part of the access and lowest part of the main development site being located within the adjacent light green ‘Countryside Zone’. Development opportunities within ‘Rural Opportunity Areas’ and ‘Countryside Zones’ are normally restricted to development categorised as ‘small’ scale as defined in the LDP. However, Policy LDP DM 1 does make provision that exceptionally, medium or large scale development may be accepted in the countryside, but only on the basis that firstly, a locational requirement is advanced and accepted, and secondly, that an Area Capacity Evaluation (or ACE) has been carried out as part of the planning process. The purpose of the ACE is to establish the capacity of the wider countryside containing the application site to successfully absorb the development proposed. It therefore involves an assessment of landscape sensitivity to the type and scale of development being proposed. The outcome of the ACE assessment will be a material consideration in decision-making. He advised that the current application was accompanied by a business case and was detailed in Section I of Appendix A to the main report. In summary, the case presented by the Applicant confirms that there is a need for the development to facilitate continued growth of the business and that in terms of brand image and operational logistics, the additional storage requires to be located on Islay with a strong operational preference for a location in proximity to the existing production and bottling facilities at Bruichladdich. The Applicant has given consideration to other sites but has been unable to identify an alternative location which meets both their own requirements and the normal operation of the LDP policies. The Applicant has explained that Bruichladdich Distillery exclusively produces single malt whisky with the unique selling point from an Islay perspective that it is also matured and bottled on the island. The Applicant contends that their product currently has an increasing demand and good prospects for growth. In support of this argument it is pointed out that employment at the distillery has grown from 19 employees in 2011 to 80 in 2015; it is envisaged that this will further increase to over 100 employees within the next 10 years. Beside direct employment, there are associated employment benefits both on and off the island related to contractors, hauliers, suppliers and tourism. The projected capital investment at the distillery is in excess of 20 million pounds over the next five years, and is expected to amount to a total of 58 million pounds between 2015 and 2026. Supplementary Report No. 1 summarises the contention advanced by an additional representation submitted on behalf of Mr & Mrs Morrison of Curlew Cottage, that insufficient locational justification for the development has been demonstrated to allow consideration of the proposed development as an ‘exceptional’ circumstance. Notwithstanding this, it is the opinion of Officers that the Applicant in this instance has demonstrated sufficient locational context, to merit consideration of the proposal as an ‘exceptional case’ having regard to the provisions of policy LDP DM 1. Accordingly an Area Capacity Evaluation has been undertaken and shall be presented to and considered by Members later in this presentation. The application site relates to an area of 13.5 Ha located at Coultorsay Farm, which is to the south and west of the settlement of Bruichladdich. The main body of the development will be undertaken within two fields to the north of the farm buildings and is located approximately half a kilometre from the existing distillery. For reference it is also noted that the northern site boundary is approximately 230m south of existing residential development at Burnside and is set back some 300m from the Oil Storage Depot on the main road. The application site comprises a shallow sloping area of agricultural grassland, currently used for grazing. The site is adjoined by scrub woodland to the west and there is a marshy grassland below the site of the proposed buildings and a further small pocket of woodland to the east. The site is separated from the A847 Bruichladdich to Port Charlotte road by intervening fields which are two deep. There is existing roadside development along the southern fringe of the village located below the application site, including some dwellings and the oil storage depot which has been mentioned. As a whole the village has a significant industrial component with the presence of the distillery buildings and associated bonds, the oil jetty and associated storage tanks. The proposal provides for 16,500 square metres of new floor space in the form of six new warehouses and a disgorging and filling unit for product transported to and from the facility by tanker. The proposal provides for six warehouses, four of which would provide 3 storage cells, and two of which would provide 2 storage cells. Each cell would have a net floor space of 1000 square metres providing an overall storage floorspace of 16,000 square metres. The buildings are designed in a manner that each cell may be constructed on a phased basis as and when it is required, it is anticipated that the current proposal would provide adequate storage to provide maturation for production for the next 15 years. The disgorging and filling unit will be contained within a separate 500 square metre building located adjacent at the end of the site access route. The development would be served by a new 6 metre wide private access road with a concrete wearing surface. The access onto the A847 would be via a new junction formed to the south of an existing BT telephone exchange building and opposite a war memorial. The proposal includes for the formation of a new public car park as a replacement for roadside spaces which would be lost to the new bellmouth arrangements. The Council’s Roads Engineer has not raised objection to the proposed access arrangements. The disgorging and filling unit would occupy the eastern end of the first field, the second field would be occupied by three rows each of two buildings, slightly terraced as a result of cut and fill required to deal with the gentle slope down the site from west to east. The warehouses would be of steel portal framed construction with exterior roughcast blockwork painted white; each cell would have a shallow pitched roof of dark grey profiled metal cladding. The warehouses would be 11.8m to the eaves and 15.5m to the ridge. He then advised of the dimensions of the various buildings. Given the extent of proposed roof and surface areas, particular consideration