Residents have been given an assurance a controversial Mearns holiday lodge development will not be used by Travellers’.
The 27-acre derelict piggery site in Luthermuir will include lodges available for holiday rental and for sale as holiday homes with private fishing, a restaurant and retail units.
A public meeting at the Ramsay Arms in Fettercairn was told that there was “absolutely no foundation for concerns that the site would be used by the Travelling community”.
A company spokesman told the audience: “There never has been, is not now, and never will be any provision for the Travelling community on this site.”
The landowner, William McDonald, is one of the men behind the unauthorised St Cyrus Travellers’ site at North Esk Park, which appeared virtually overnight in 2013.
The fresh application will be lodged at a time when the future of the St Cyrus Travellers’ site remains ultimately in question against the backdrop of an ongoing Scottish Ministers investigation.
Carnoustie-based architects and developer Brunton Design will put forward the plans but previously declined to reveal its client, describing that information as “commercially sensitive”.
Mr McDonald, who is investing more than £1 million in the project, said he had been keeping in the background because he feared that his association with the Travellers’ site at St Cyrus would lead to “false conjecture and scare stories”.
He said this had happened anyway and he was attending the public meeting to answer any questions and put the speculation to rest.
The residents were shown drawings of the proposed development which includes country walks, wildlife hides and fishing ponds.
They were also shown photographs of luxury lodges which already exist on two other sites in which Mr McDonald has an interest.
Project architects, Allan Mudie and Rodger Brunton then answered a series of questions regarding the provision of services, waste disposal and other environmental issues.
They assured the audience that all the required impact studies were being carried out by professional consultants and these reports would form part of the application.
They would then become public documents and would be available for anyone to examine.
Most of the residents’ concerns centred on the narrow single-track road leading to the Dowrieburn site.
Mr Mudie explained that as part of the planning process Aberdeenshire Council Roads Department would consider the impact of the proposed development and impose any conditions, such as passing places, signs or speed restrictions, which they felt necessary.
However he said he understood the residents’ concerns and would take them on board when submitting the application.
Mr Mudie said he anticipated that the application would be lodged with Aberdeenshire Council by the middle of May.
