OBJECTORS ARE aiming to ground Angus Gliding Club’s bid to continue their 15-year operation of a base near the village of Glamis.

The group go before Angus planners today with a full application for 25 hectares of land at Roundyhill which has served as a gliding site since permission was given in the 1990s.

However, the club faces a litany of complaints from local residents ranging from claims of dangerous low flying to allegations of flyers urinating in full view of nearby houses.

Angus development standards committee members are being recommended to approve the Drumshade Farm proposal, effectively renewing a permission first granted in October 1992 by the former Angus District Council.

That permission expired in November 2002 and whilst opponents have also criticised the club for operating without planning approval, officials say that enforcement action would be premature given the new application and suggest that gliders could fly for up to 28 days a year under permitted development rights.

In support of their bid, the club say their activities contribute to tourism in Angus and Tayside, and contend that the activities at Drumshade have improved what was formerly a run-down farm not suited to modern practices.

The club concedes that if tugs and motor gliders are permitted under the new application some noise will be generated, but point out that Drumshade is a licensed airfield under the Civil Aviation Authority and as such is a military avoidance zone, taking noisy military jets away from the site.

The glider group is also of the view that more noise will be created by other local operations including the adjacent Powmyre quarry and a nearby kennels business, one of the main objectors to the application.

Ruth Mitchell, of the Paws for Thought boarding kennels and cattery, has claimed in a letter of opposition that she and her staff are regularly subjected to low-flying gliders.

“This practice, as well as being incredibly stupid and irresponsible, is extremely dangerous for both dogs and staff,” she states.

She has also complained to the club verbally and in writing about club members urinating near her home in view of herself and staff, a matter which she has raised with the police.

“It is perhaps indicative of the way the club is run that this licence should have been applied for in 2002 when the previous licence expired,” she adds.

“We are an extremely successful boarding kennel and cattery with over 300 regular clients per year which this small club of weekend hobbyists are seriously putting at risk of closure.

“As an employer I must take seriously all health and safety issues and the gliding club’s activities are of major concern,” her letter claims.