The developer behind plans for a 102-bedroom hotel near Dundee airport has claimed it can create a “successful, meaningful and memorable” building.
Details of Lomond Group’s appeal against the refusal of planning permission by the city council have been released, including its contention that no other suitable site can be found.
However, council planners have responded by saying that the company has produced no evidence of this and that the area already has several sizeable hotels.
The case is being handled by the Scottish Government’s planning appeals unit, which has published the submissions made by both sides.
Lomond Group has permission for a 60-bedroom hotel on the 0.5-hectare site, but its attempt to increase the size of the development was rejected in December.
It is continuing to argue that the increase is desirable to properly support the city’s aspirations to grow its business and tourism markets.
The proposed design is meant to reflect the nearby aeronautical connection, with an accommodation wing based on the shape of a Spitfire’s exhaust vent and a tower like an airport control tower.
The company said, “There has been an increase in the footprint of the hotel as a direct result of the 42-bed increase in the facility, but the height of the building remains unaltered. The layout has been adjusted and improved to accommodate the additional car parking required to serve the increased bed space.
“The scale, nature, height and layout of the proposed development … will make for a comfortable and pleasant fit in the townscape.”
Lomond Group is hoping to take advantage of an increase in visitor numbers to Dundee stemming from the creation of the V&A museum at the central waterfront.
Councillors set aside development plan policies when they granted permission for a 60-bed hotel. Lomond Group is suggesting that similar “flexibility and realism” should be applied in the appeal case owing to the “negligible” differences between that proposal and the 102-bedroom version.
Council planners believe the larger hotel would be an over-development of the site. Their appeal submission states that Lomond Group has not supplied details of the selection process that led it to the spot by the airport. Nor has it explained why other possible locations in or next to the city centre, close to the V&A, were not considered.
The planners also take issue with the company’s argument that there are few hotels serving the west end of Dundee, pointing out that the Queen’s, Invercarse and Landmark hotels are all within 2 miles of the airport.
A site inspection will be carried out by an appeal reporter before a decision is made on whether or not to allow the development to go ahead.