Transport tycoon Sir Brian Souter has won a planning battle to build a road and bridge near his Perth home after neighbours were reassured that it wouldn’t pave the way for a housing development.
When the plans for vehicle access to fields near the Stagecoach businessman’s Georgian home, Bellwood House on Kinnoull Hill, were initially revealed, they provoked a storm of protest from locals.
They feared that the plan would ultimately lead to house building on the open fields on the slopes of the beauty spot.
During the consultation period Perth and Kinross Council advised Sir Brian’s agents that the application should be withdrawn and resubmitted with the application amended to make it clear that permission was sought for “the formation of an access for maintenance”.
“This advice was based on concerns that the council officer was receiving from members of the public that access could be used as an access road for a new housing development on the fields to the south owned by the applicant,” said the agents in a statement to the council.
“Contrary to that opinion, the applicant simply wants to create an access for maintaining the fields and ditches that he owns as confirmed in the description of this resubmitted applications.
“The reason why this access option has been chosen as opposed to any other potential alternative route is because it is more private, less visually intrusive and there are potential land ownership issues with alternative routes.”
The agents said that the concerns of residents stemmed from previous failed applications by others in the past to develop the fields but since then the land has been identified as being “greenbelt”.
“As such any fears that local residents may have about that particular land being developed appear unfounded as its greenbelt status and the increased environmental protection of the land means that there is no prospect of development being accepted on that land,” concluded the agents.
Now Perth and Kinross Council has confirmed that permission for vehicle access on Bellwood Park has been granted, subject to various conditions.
The drawings reveal that only one small elder tree will require to be removed.
