Sandown enquiry starts today

March 2, 2010 · Filed Under Development, Nairn 

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The appeal by Deveron against refusal by the Highland Council to approve their Sandown development gets under way today.

The BBC covers the story very briefly, but more details are found in the P&J story.

Interesting to see a South Community Councillor has a blog and has commented on the issue.

Perhaps more interesting, though, is a story covered in the Gurn suggesting that the reporters aren’t actually sure what the enquiry is about!

This also gets coverage in the P&J today, and seems to continue a sad track where the Highland Council is unable to perform it’s basic functions – it’s certainly not the first time we’ve seen development issues stalled by the Highland Council’s inability to get proper documentation in play.

The main thrust of the official objection appears to rest solely with Sandy Park’s conclusion at the planning hearing last year that Nairn’s infrastructure would not be able to cope with the planned development Deveron had submitted.

However, since the original protests against the Sandown application, we’ve seen a mass of new flats constructed at Maggot Road. I also took a walk around the Lochloy development a few days ago and was saddened to see it’s becoming a sprawling mess of flats and cheap terraces.

The very features of the Sandown application that were deemed unsuitable for Nairn, by the various non-council objectors, seem to be already being built or completed.

So the objections the the Concerned residents group already appear thwarted – the high-density out-of-character developments have already pushed on – but not by “greedy” private developers, instead by the Albyn Housing association with Scottish Government money!

That raises the question as to whether Sandy’s original objection can really hold back Deveron on the issue of infrastructure alone, considering the existing expansion already in place.

The concern is that all that will happen is that Deveron will be asked to amend their plans to better address these issues, rather than change any of the core plan for 550 homes.

This is especially as another recent P&J article pointed out that 5 of 7 appeals to the Scottish Government have succeeded against councillors in recent weeks.

Unless the Highland Council or concerned parties can push overwhelming technical objections against the Sandown development, it’s hard to see Deveron not having a chance of winning.

If that means having a potentially uncharacteristic development on the West-entry into Nairn, we’d only have the Highland Council to blame – they’ve already been approving these developments.

And what a bunch of idiots for not pushing on an outright sale of Sandown lands, but instead getting caught up in an affiliate agreement that sees the money come in only when Deveron sell houses – leaving the common good fund in financial limbo.

Still, at least we can be cheered by having wider pavements on the High Street later in the year!

Nairn definitely needs a single strong voice to represent local issues, because at present it seems the HC has been riding roughshod over the town for too long.

Comments

2 Responses to “Sandown enquiry starts today”

  1. Liz Gilchrist on March 3rd, 2010 8:26 am

    Thank you for picking up my comments on a subject I too feel strongly about.
    This sort of issue comes up time and time again and there is no consistancy or accountability in how these applications are treated.

    Can I ask you to revise one point please – I am an Inverness South Community Councillor and not a Highland Councillor :)
    Best wishes

  2. Brian Turner on March 3rd, 2010 8:44 am

    Thanks for the comment and apologies for the error – now corrected. :)

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