The plans go to committee on Thursday so nothing's been given the go ahead as yet, but the planners are recommending approval although the proposals don't accord with the development plan. But it's a very unusual situation.
The Lothians Structure plan requires land to be released for 400 houses on the urban fringe. In the draft Local Plan this was designated at Newcraighall. The Reporter at the Local Inquiry accepted that it was a sutiable site for housing but no the whole allocation. He recommended 230 houses at Newcraighall with the remainder split between Burdiehouse and Dreghorn. The Planners recommended that the Planning Commitee accept this recommendation but the Cllrs decided to stick with the original 400 houses at Newcraighall.
Jump forward a couple of years, and with planning applications for Newcraighall already submitted, one of the developers with an interest in the alternative sites gets the designation in the Local Plan struck out by the Courts. So at a stroke the planning applications go from being compliant to non-compliant with the Local Plan. Officers recommend that the decision be challenged but Cllrs decided to accept it.
But since the Local Plan no longer has any allocation for 400 houses on the fringe, it no longer complies with the Structure Plan. In fact pretty much any planning application that tries to comply with the Structure plan will automatically not comply with the Local Plan for that very reason.
So planners are now recommending approval for a development that doesn't comply with the Development Plan.
All in all it's a bit of a mess.Statistics: Posted by seanie — 18 Jun 2011, 13:41
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