Proposed Self-Build Development Fordoun Road
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PROPOSED SELF-BUILD DEVELOPMENT FORDOUN ROAD, LAURENCEKIRK, ABERDEENSHIRE for Medlock & Medlock Ltd. April 2021 PLANNING AND DESIGN SUPPORTING STATEMENT INTRODUCTION This Planning & Design Supporting Statement has been prepared by @rchitects Scotland Ltd on behalf of Medlock & Medlock Ltd in support of an application for permission in principle for the proposed development of 7No self-build House plots which will be accessed off Fordoun Road at Laurencekirk. LOCATION The site is located on the northwest of Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire. The site is adjacent to the Fordoun Road, which is one of the main routes north from Laurencekirk. The plots are served by an existing access road which already serves the 7No houses / plots that were previously approved to the south of the road under application references: Plot 7 - APP/2016/2243 Plot 6 - APP/2016/2242 Plot 5 - APP/2016/2240 Plot4 - APP/2016/2237 Plot 3 - APP/2016/2235 Plot 2 - APP/2016/2233 Plot 1 - APP/2018/0958 The site has good transport links with its proximity to Laurencekirk train station and the A90 (which both links to Aberdeen in the north and Dundee to the south). There is also frequent bus provision from Laurencekirk High Street which is a 10 minute walk from the site. SITE ANALYSIS LAND USE AND CHARACTERISTICS Laurencekirk is the largest settlement in the Howe o' the Mearns area. It is a small commuter town with a population of approximately 3,100. Laurencekirk is a linear town, with its high street stretching the full length of the town from the south west to the north east. The town centre includes, among other things, a supermarket, local shops, and a bank. Industrial/ commercial areas are concentrated adjacent to Laurencekirk Railway Station, with the remainder of the town comprising mainly residential dwellings, parks, schools, churches, a town hall and a cemetery. The site sits on the northern periphery of the town with agricultural ground to the north and existing housing development to the south. CONNECTIVITY The site has excellent public transport, road and connectivity to Laurencekirk and the wider area. The site sits adjacent to the Fordoun Road which connects the site directly to the centre of Laurencekirk. The site is approximately a 10-minute walk from the site to the centre of Laurencekirk from where there are regular buses north to Aberdeen or south to Dundee. Laurencekirk Railway Station is less than a 10-minute walk from the site, The railway station also connects to Aberdeen in the north and Dundee and beyond to the south. Laurencekirk is connected to the A90 which runs round the perimeter of Laurencekirk to the south and from the site it is less than a 5-minute drive to this main trunk road. Mearns Academy is also a short walk from the site and Laurencekirk Primary School is also well within walking distance. CLIMATE The orientation of the site and its relatively open aspect provides it with maximum solar gain throughout the day with the south westerly prevailing wind being reduced by existing housing and tree planting. TOPOGRAPHY The existing topography of the site slopes away gradually toward the north. PLANNING CONTEXT DEVELOPMENT PLAN STATUS Section 25 of the Town and country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 requires planning applications to be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The site is located out with the settlement boundary and within the countryside in the adopted Aberdeenshire Local Development Plan 2017. As such, there is a presumption against residential development as it does not fall within any of the categories of permitted development in the countryside. However, the site has been allocated for residential development in the Proposed Aberdeenshire Local Development Plan 2020 as part of site OP7. It is understood that there were no objections to the allocation of the site in the Proposed Plan. As such, the allocation will not be considered as part of the examination into objections to the emerging LDP and it can be considered to be the Planning Authority's most up to date position on the suitability of the site for development. Whether something is a material consideration is a matter of law. It is submitted that the Proposed Plan is a material consideration which provides the basis for granting consent for the application, notwithstanding the terms of the adopted LDP. This is in line with Appendix A of Circular 3/2013: Development management procedures. There is considerable case law dealing with determination of applications pending the adoption of a proposed or emerging plan. In The Trustees of the Late Mrs Hilda Jane (or Johanna) Caroline Pilkington (otherwise Mrs Hilda Caroline Pilkington) v Scottish Ministers (2013 CSOH 147) the court set out the process to be followed. Scottish Planning Policy (December 2020) paragraph 34 confirms that where a plan is under review it may be appropriate in some circumstances to consider whether granting planning permission would prejudice the emerging plan, but that those circumstances are only likely to apply where the development is so substantial, or its cumulative effect would be so significant, that to grant permission would undermine the pan-making process by predetermining decisions about the scale, location or phasing of new development that are central to the emerging plan. Given that the application seeks consent for only 7 units, it cannot be considered to be central to the emerging plan. In any event, as noted above, the emerging plan allocates the site for development. MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS Another material consideration justifying grant of consent ahead of adoption of the Proposed Plan is the lack of available housing land in Laurencekirk. Most of the housing on the allocated Sites in the current adopted LDP have failed to come forward and due to relevant permissions and other restrictions do not appear to be in a position to do so in the near future. Additionally, none of the other opportunity sites which are allocated for residential development within the emerging LDP for Laurencekirk that have previously submitted relevant applications or obtained consents have made any provision for self-build plots and are therefore not contributing to the need for self-build units which are a desired in the area and supported by the Community Council. ALLOCATION The allocation in the Proposed Plan envisages fifteen self-build units being constructed on the overall area. As noted in the settlement statement, and highlighted above, planning permission for 7 homes has already been granted on the southern half of the OP7 site. As such, the settlement boundary has already been extended beyond that shown in the 2017 Plan. The allocation requires the landowner to be responsible for ensuring that all infrastructure is in place prior to any homes being constructed, including waste water treatment, road access through the site and open space provision. OP7 is expected to provide affordable housing in the first phase of development. In granting consent for the 7no houses on the southern part of OP7, the Council accepted that self-build by its nature was classed as affordable housing and no additional contribution was required. On the basis that the proposed units are also self-build, it is assumed that there will be no additional requirement for affordable units on the northern part of the site. Although referenced in the Proposed Plan, the site is not adjacent to a small watercourse and as such there is no flood risk associated with this development. The buffer strip requirements are therefore not relevant. DESIGN CONCEPT There are a number of factors which prescribed the design approach to this site: • The comments from the planning officers on the previous full applications for individual plots and subsequent discussions. • The requirements for development of the site (OP7) in the emerging Local Development Plan (LDP) and the relevant design policies. • The nature of the existing road and the area of land identified for development in the emerging LDP are highly linear and the depth of land available restricts the approach to single depth plots. • In order to break down this linear nature and create an appropriate sense of place the proposals include the stepping of the properties proposed along with a variation in the orientation of the housing at the entrance as well as at the far end of the road. Additionally, we have included randomised landscape planting to the fronts of the properties. • With regard to the relationship with the open countryside to the north we are proposing appropriate native hedge and post and wire fence boundary treatment along with randomised tree and shrub planting both within the plots and in the field beyond. This softens the edge of the development particularly when combined with the lower densities of the properties from the standard suburban housing further to the south. • There is an established desire within Laurencekirk for the provision of self-build plots, with extremely limited land available for that purpose. This proposal provides plots and setting for the designing of appropriate individual houses for the self-build purchaser that integrate well with the rural ground beyond. With the individual designs of the houses obviously subject to further necessary and appropriate scrutiny and approvals. • Locating the SUDS basins to the lowest part of the site to provide a gravity fed SUDS system. • Improve the existing nature of the relationship of this edge of Laurencekirk with the open countryside beyond. DESIGN POLICIES The design policies in both the adopted LDP and the emerging LDP are relevant to the application. The policies are very similar. Policy R2 Development Proposals Elsewhere in the Countryside While this is development relates to opportunity site OP7 in the 2020 LDP, Policy R2 also confirms that Small-scale organic growth of identified settlements (up to 10No dwellings) may be permitted where a particular need for development has been established by the Planning Authority.