70 Houses on Campsie Road? – Planning application 17/00434/PPP & appeal PPA-390-2060-1

Gladman planning application for Campsie Road: Second appeal REJECTED by Scottish Ministers July 2022

The second appeal by Gladman to build 70 houses along Campsie Road has finally been decided. The detailed decision documents are 

These are lengthy documents. The official file including all arguments between the appellant (Gladman) and the authority (Stirling) can be seen online here. History is summarised below.

Throughout 2020-2021, the case dragged on while parties responded to various potential changes in law and changes in the Stirling housing land supply. These were very technical arguments. Essentially Gladman’s tactic was to argue that there was a shortfall in housing land supply across the Stirling area and, consequently all other considerations could be waived aside and they can build where they want (the so-called ’tilted balance’).  While Stirling Council argued the technicalities of land supply, the Community Council argued that the proposal should be rejected regardless of any disputed housing supply, because the ’tilted balance’ would have to tilt a very long way before this particular proposal should be allowed. The Community Council letter of February 2021 is here. In the end, this is what killed the proposal: the Reporter favoured Stirling’s method of calculation but then analysed the ’tilted balance’ on the basis of Gladman’s calculation.

Even giving Gladman that benefit of the doubt, the balance would not favour this particular proposal. Not all of the Community Council objections were followed. Some were assessed as neutral or minor. The main ones which were followed were

  • the impact on the setting of the village and the green belt landscape, and
  • especially the major expansion that would result and the dependence on car journeys out of the area that the development would entail. 

The Scottish Ministers agreed and found it unnecessary to decide who is right about the method of calculating shortfall.

Gladman could still appeal to the Court of Session, we understand. However, it seems that they would have to overturn the Reporter’s opinion on quite a few issues. 

History Jan 2018-June 2019

The new appeal is under way with reference PPA-390-2060-1. The new Reporter invited those who had made submissions to the original appeal to comment, and the Community Council has provided a response on 15 August 2019. For all the reasons that were endorsed by the first Reporter, we would hope that the appeal will be rejected again.

Particularly in light of the flooding in the village on 31 July 2019, the concerns about flooding that were raised in our original objection appear even more pertinent.

View the Community Council comments here.  The official file including all arguments between the appellant (Gladman) and the authority (Stirling) can be seen online here. At the time of writing (17 April 2020) the correspondence appears to be closed, and the Reporter’s decision can be expected at any time. 

History Jan 2018-June 2019

The planning application 17/00434/PPP was rejected by Stirling. Strathblane Community Council members attended the Planning Panel meeting at Stirling Council headquarters on 7 November 2017. The refusal was recommended by Stirling’s planning officer. His report to the planning panel is copied here. The motion to refuse was proposed and seconded by our local councillors, Graham Lambie and Alistair Berrill. It was noted that there have been some submissions by Gladman offering to trim the area of housing, to keep away from the historic monument (burial mound). See the “RevisionB” plan here.  More detail of the correspondence can be viewed on the planning portal.

Gladman had 3 months to appeal this decision, and chose to file their appeal on 22 December 2017, to cause maximum hassle for Stirling’s officers to prepare their responses over Christmas. The council and your Community Council filed replies, along with other parties. The Reporter made a site visit (unaccompanied)  in  February or March, and her decision was finally issued on 25 July 2018. The community council was very pleased to note that the appeal was refused.  The full decision can be read PPA-390-2060_Decision. All the submissions and correspondence on the appeal case is on the DPEA website here. The reporter confirmed the community council view that these are the wrong houses in the wrong place.

Nevertheless, Gladman made an appeal to the Court of Session, whose decision was issued on 14 June 2019. The DPEA decision rejecting Gladman’s appeal has been quashed. The decision was based on a very narrow technicality about how housing land supply should be calculated, but their lordships decided this renders the whole of the DPEA decision invalid. 

The good news is that this court decision is just a limited “judicial review” criticising the appeal decision process. It does not mean that will automatically get their planning permission or that the Reporter got the wrong result.

A copy of the Court of Session decision is here in which we have highlighted some relevant parts. According to the court, the sole issue considered by the Reporter was whether Stirling used the correct method to calculate their housing land supply. They don’t even say whether Stirling did or didn’t use the correct method: they merely find that the Reporter did not examine the question properly. Furthermore they say that, because a different land supply calculation could have tipped the balance of all considerations, they must quash the whole decision.

What it does mean is that the appeal must be decided again by a Reporter at the DPEA and Scottish Ministers, taking more care to consider all relevant issues. 

** More detail of the Local Development Plan process is here.

History (July 2017- January 2018) Responses to Gladman Planning application 17/00434/PPP and appeal  PPA-390-2060

On 31 May 2017 Gladman Developments filed the expected planning application for the site on Campsie Road. A programme of urgent consultation was agreed at the Strathblane Community Council meeting on 12 June 2017. This included drop-in sessions at the Village Club, an online and paper survey, and a special meeting of the community council on 31 July 2017.

Slides from the 31 July 2017 meeting are here. The slides include a summary of the survey results, while a more detailed report is available here. The overwhelming view of those present, as well as those who responded to the survey, was that we should firmly oppose this development.

Numerous individual submissions have also been made direct to Stirling Council, almost all opposing the development. At the time of writing, only some of these had been uploaded to the Stirling planning portal, but we expect that the rest will be uploaded soon. Thanks to all those who copied their submissions to the community council.

The community council had already felt that this planning application was a most unwelcome departure from the established Local Development Plan. The survey  responses confirmed that the vast majority (>90%) of residents agree. The community council has prepared and filed a detailed response and submitted this to Stirling Council (see below).

In this response, we urge the authorities to be led by the Local Development Plan, and especially not to undermine the Green Belt designation that was only recently reconfirmed.

  • Gladman provided many expert reports supposedly supporting their case, but we believe the evidence and the arguments are still firmly against the proposal.
  • Historic Environment Scotland have objected, SEPA have objected, there is inadequate capacity in the high school and in the waste water system.
  • In addition to a very negative impact on the local landscape and setting of the village, viewed from the John Muir Way and elsewhere, we believe that the risk of flooding of the site and flooding of our villages downstream has not been adequately considered, and that the extra traffic has been woefully underestimated.

More detail is in the community council’s detailed response and appendices, copied here:

As expected, Stirling refused the application, and we hope that the appeal will be rejected. However, Scottish Ministers have the power to overrule any decision on individual applications. Therefore we are taking nothing for granted. Purely as a precaution, the letter also sets out in detail a number of conditions that we say should be applied if any development were to be allowed.

Documentation in the appeal case can be found here, and Strathblane CC’s response to the appeal is on the public file here.

“Illustrative Master Plan” from application 17/00434/PPP

History (Oct 2016 – July 2017)

Strathblane Community Council and Stirling Council received a “pre-application notice” (PAN) from Gladman Developments. The PAN is an initial stage aimed at helping developers, the community and other interested parties to iron out any issues before the potential submission of a formal planning application. This PAN is suggesting the creation of a residential development and a cemetery on Campsie Road. The site is adjacent to the new Cala houses and covers two fields that are divided by a track leading over the Blane Water and the Strathkelvin Railway Path. A PAN is required for major developments that may be housing proposals of 50 or more dwellings or housing sites of 2 hectares or more.

gladman-location-plan
master-plan-low-res

Background

There were prolonged consultations leading to our Community Action Plan (2011) and successive rounds of discussion on subsequent Local Development Plan proposals for our villages. The community agreed that the Cala Development on Campsie Road would be LAST development in this location with the boundary with the Green Belt being created by a new cemetery provided by Stirling Council. This has been backed by the Council and is consistent with the conclusions reached by the Reporter who examined the Local Development Plan —“Further low density westerly expansion would have an unacceptable impact on the countryside and Green Belt”. More background on the Local Development Plan update for 2017 is on our page  here. More detailed background was provided in the special supplement distributed with the November edition of the Blane Valley Bulletin. Additional resources are given at the foot of this page.

Pre-application Consultation Oct-November 2016

The PAN was the start of a 3 month consultation between the applicant and the community. Gladman Developments held a Drop-in Session at the Village Club on Monday 31st October 2016. We believe over 100 people as possible went along to find out what the development proposals are and express their views on what is being proposed. Gladman Developments have produced a report of the Pre-application consultation , which they have submitted as part of the planning application.

At the drop-in session, Gladman exhibited some information boards. These are available to view in Strathblane Library. A copy is online at Gladman’s website below, and on our website here. The Community Council does not consider Gladman’s consultation to be satisfactory. For example, their exhibition boards contain some misleading explanations. For example, they say “The Council has identified the site … as being appropriate for release from the green belt and has accepted the principle of development on the site.” Clearly it is absurd to count cemetery and housing as equal kinds of “development”. Moreover, as the maps on the same board clearly show, the Council has not proposed to release the land from Green Belt. The landowner Charles Connell & Co, has twice promoted this land for housing development and Stirling Council has rejected it twice as unsuitable. The land is needed for a cemetery extension, which is also intended to form a new permanent boundary for the Green Belt.

At the Community Council meeting on 7th November it was agreed to form an expanded Planning Group to work on the community response and expanded consultation. Many attended and virtually all voices were opposed to this development. This expanded group has met with and sought advice from planning experts. Bruce Crawford MSP also attended and he has written to Gladman, and to Stirling Council, seeking for confirmation of the status of the Local Development Plan and the cemetery extension.The consensus of the Planning Group is that this proposal amounts to “Wrong Houses, Wrong Site, Wrong Number”. Whether you agree with that assessment, or disagree, now is the opportunity for community members to make their voices heard.

A draft letter; a survey and a petition were prepared to help community members join in effective consultation. The special supplement dedicated to the Gladman proposal was distributed with the November edition of the Blane Valley Bulletin.

Many residents came along to our Community Council meeting on Monday 5th December 2016 where Gladman were attending and answered questions. We prepared a draft letter or email for you to start from. Also a petition and online survey were set up. The minutes of the meeting are available on this website here.

After consideration of the points raised, a response to the consultation was filed on behalf of Strathblane Community Council. A copy of the response is Here .  The main concern is to ensure that any land allocations and development are planned with the interests of the community in mind, and with all factors taken into account with proper consultation.

In May 2017 trenches have been dug in the fields. We understand this is for archaeological survey.

Planning Application 17/00434/PPP filed 31 May 2017

When the planning application was filed, it was for up to 70 houses on Campsie Road (and re-location of the proposed cemetery extension).  A plan of consultation was devised, taking into account the inconvenient summer holiday timing. Stirling Council was requested to provide an extension of time. A supplement  with information and questionnaire was issued with the June 2017 edition of the Blane Valley Bulletin. This included a survey/questionnaire for residents and others to tell Strathblane Community Council their views of the Gladman proposal. We received 216 completed responses from residents, and a handful from non-residents, both online and on paper.

Our consultation and response to the planning application is reported at the head of this page.

Reference materials

Resources

Information from Strathblane Community Council

This web page will be updated with the latest information as the consultation progresses. More background is in the special supplement to the BVB, mentioned above. If you want more detail, please get in touch with us using the Contact form (choose “Planning” as the heading).

Information from Stirling Council

Prior to agreement of the adopted Local Development Plan and the proposed (updated) Local Development Plan, Stirling already considered this site that was promoted by the landowner for development. The relevant part of the Examination Report for the LDP 2014 is here. The relevant part of Stirling’s “Main Issues Report” from 2015 is here. Full information about the Local Development Plan and process can be found on Stirling LDP pages.

Information from Scottish Government, Planning Enforcement and Appeals Division

Documentation in the appeal case can be found here, and Strathblane CC’s original response to the first appeal is on the public file here. Strathblane CC’s response to the new appeal is here.

Information from Gladman Developments.

Gladman’s dedicated web page can be found at http://www.your-views.co.uk/strathblane The pre-application consultation period for this project has now closed. The web page will, however, remain active and will be updated accordingly as the project develops.

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