The Nairn Residents Concern group's objection to the Springfield planning application is now on the Highland Council e-planning site. It opens
"Summary
The NRCG objects to this application. Details are set out below. In essence the objections, a total
of 18 specific points, fall under three broad headings:
- non-compliance with agreed planning policies and local plans;
- infrastructural issues, notably in relation to transport/access and drainage/sewage/flood risk;
- failure to deliver appropriately on current objectives (e.g. housing), and absence of 'future-proofing'.
These objections are based on local discussion and research. Selected key references are included.
Extensive supporting material and additional sources can be cited if required.
The conclusion is that this application should not be granted – or at least not without substantial
modification, and not unless and until the necessary infrastructure is demonstrably in place and of
the capacity required to meet the needs and priorities of the local community."
There then follows 7 pages in which the 18 points are both specified and examined in detail. A conclusion to the document reads:
"Conclusion: the application falls short – in terms of compliance with agreed planning
policies, capacity or provision of necessary infrastructure, and delivery of outcomes – of
what the local plans require and the local community expects to meet its need and
priorities. The development should not be permitted unless and until all local concerns
and objections are fully addressed."
It is quite a document readers and the many serious students of planning matters in our wee toon will no doubt be pouring themselves a dram or making a cuppa and then sitting down to digest this objection from the NRCG.
You can see the document here or on the Highland Council e-planning pages here under the documents tab.
8 comments:
IS NAIRN CLOSED FOR FUTURE EXPANSION?
I have read the majority of the objections to both 'Liz's Land' and the 'Forres Road Site' in recent days and I am frankly concerned!
With regards the Forres Road site, from what I understand this is to be all for Social housing, Which Murd and many others are crying out for. Yes the site is near the A96, but no closer than the majority of other long standing residential properties along its length throughout Nairn. In fact, this site has a number of mature trees separating it from the A96, so I can not see any issue with noise, dust and/or light pollution affecting this site.
Part of the town sewer network is at capacity, that is a given. But these parts tend to be the older networks i.e. Harbour St (which is the area of the recent flooding) and that is because in theses areas they have a single pipe, rather than the common practice of separate foul and surface water systems and during periods of heavy rain the network in theses areas can not cope and back up. As the Forres Road site will not be discharging into the network around Harbour Street, the problems there has no bearing on the proposal.
The only real consideration then is how does the traffic affect the A96, which I am sure the developers and Transport Scotland have discussed at length, but from my view, this section through town is generally free flowing and would therefore have little impact on the overall total usage of the A96.
Moving onto 'Liz's Land' This site has been earmarked for development in the current Local Plan (it is immaterial if it was not zoned for housing in the previous Nairn Local Plan 2000 - this document is now 18years out of date!!). The time to object/comment on the suitability of this site being developed for housing has therefore passed and it has to be taken as a given it is zoned for housing.
My earlier comments regarding the sewage network capacity and flooding also applies here and Scottish Water (who run and operate the town treatment works) says there is capacity to take additional units, so if they are right, no issues there.
The historic issues around Lochloy with Sewers not being adopted pre-date Springfield and these issues belong to previous developers, yes Springfield did what they needed to get the trunk sewer in Lochloy adopted, but really who expected them to deal with all the issues on surrounding streets?
Springfield have also confirmed this development will also add to the pot the Council has to build the footbridge across the Railway line, so that will only become more realistic with the advancement of this site - so all good there.
Therefore the only issue with this site appears to be traffic along Lochloy Rd/A96 traffic lights, whilst I dont live in Lochloy I frequent the road on a daily basis and yes during the morning peak (08.45-09.15) and afternoon peak (17.00 - 18.00) traffic is slow, but come on people join the real world - where else inst busy at those times.
But wait lets stop all development in Nairn until the by-pass is built I hear you cry. Honestly, you have to be kidding yourself if you think the by-pass will be built within the next 10 years, so are you really saying we do not want anyone to build another house in Nairn for the next 10yrs? If so, where do you expect the younger generations/families to live? Not wanting to take much away from the main objectors - Nairn River Community Council and Nairn Resident Concern Group (has anyone heard of the last one before?) but most of the members of these groups live in the west end and do not/are looking to purchase a family house in Nairn, take it from me, this is currently a near impossibility and will only steadily get worse if we put up our shutters and say we are closed for business.
I for one question if it would have been more beneficial, if the amount of effort these groups had spent on objecting to these proposals could have been better spent on working with all parties to encourage growth in the town, rather than pulling down the shutters.
Hello anonymous, no doubt other readers might have a response or two to what you have to say. Would simply like to say that unless I am mistaken and there has been a flitting here and there recently none of the River Community Council members live in the West End and if they did they would not be eligible to be members of said organisation as River CC covers Lochloy, Merryton, Boath Park, River Park, Broadhill, Fishertown, The High Street area, Mill Rd/Church Street, Cawdor Rd, Queenspark and Firhall.
Have to agree with anonymous on general tone of objections. We need a balance between the get it built and no more houses stances.
Looks as though developers?/interested parties? are now commenting on the Gurn. It's a free ('ish) country
It is indeed a free country anon and there are indeed many interested parties for or against, I don't think Murd is in a minority of one however and there will be others who wish to see houses built come what may. It isn't comments on here that matter at the end of the day in pure planning terms although there may be ripples that activate brain cells in any of our local councillors that pass this way, it will be comments on the Highland Council e-planning site so if you are for or against (and we have to confess that the majority of folk seem to be against) then get along to that digital resource and make your views known there.
A huge problem for everyone whether they are prepared to admit or not is the question of resources. If another 115 houses are built in Nairn will be get extra investment in areas such as health or education, the answer is no, we'll have to stretch what we already have.
Likewise Scottish Water are never going to freely admit that they're already at capacity or beyond as that too would mean extra investment. Any doubt to the fact that we're pouring raw sewage into our water courses is seen by the water quality or rather lack of it on our beaches especially after heavy rainfall.
As for road traffic I'm sure the majority of us who drive will have seen the bottleneck at the A96/Lochloy junction. There are still new houses to be built before the proposed 115 so this will get worse. 'Live with it' why should we.
I suspect that there are indeed many families possibly from all over the UK who'd like to come and live in Nairn, but unless we can offer a good infrastructure for current as well as future residents then the quality of life on our town will go down along with it's appeal
Anonymous...this site does indeed have hundreds of mature trees, many separating it from the A96 as you have observed. Unfortunately when you visited the application on the e-planning web site you failed to notice that the developers are proposing to remove all those trees.
You need to get the facts right before commenting on the failings of Community Councillors.
Now there is some thing new extra investment in areas such as health or education
Houses don't require Doctors or Education but there are 380+ people on the waiting list for houses and the majority do stay in Nairn and are on the system now.
And they just want some where to call there own home.
I could hide behind Anonymous like some but my cry.
NAIRN NEEDS HOUSES GET THEM BUILT will give me away. So will just give my name.
And take what ever comes my way. Some thing I can well handle. MURD
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