Perth and Kinross Council has rejected an accusation it acted unreasonably when it refused to extend a deadline for a community council to make detailed comments on a planning application to build 22 new homes on the southern fringes of Scotlandwell.
Portmoak Community Council (PCC) claimed it was “highly unreasonable” of the local authority not to extend the deadline for comments considering the amount of responses to the proposal that were only published in the last few days of the consultation period.
They included comments for various council departments including its biodiversity team who said they needed Glenrothes-based developer Scotwell to complete a habitats appraisal before they could in turn fully appraise the application.
They also included a holding objection from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) requiring the applicant to complete a peat survey of the site.
PCC said in its own response to the application: “We were first made aware of this application on July 12, the day before our July community council meeting.
“It was obvious at that meeting that there was considerable public concern at the scale of this development, which would be the most significant housing development in Scotlandwell for at least the last 20 years.
“PCC therefore requested an extension of the consultation period so that the development proposals could be studied over a period of days and then considered at the next PCC meeting scheduled for August 10. This was refused by PKC, citing Scottish Government guidance on deadlines.
“A special meeting of PCC therefore had to be called to discuss this application on July 27 in order to meet the consultation deadline of July 30.
“This refusal by PKC to extend the deadline was highly unreasonable, especially when we arrived at July 27 to find that a large number of additional documents had been added to the [council’s planning portal] after July 12, all of which were from internal consultees and one external consultee and all of which indicated that additional work was required before the planning application could be determined.”
Reacting to those comments a council spokesperson told the PA: “The application in question was validated on July 1 and subject to the relevant notifications, consultation and advertisement in line with established council procedures.
“In terms of consultation with the community council, they were sent the weekly list containing the application on July 12, with the deadline for comments being July 30.
“We were contacted by the community council on July 13 asking for an extension to the deadline. At this stage there were 17 days left to comment, and with the standard consultation period being 14 days, this was considered sufficient time for a response to be prepared.
“It is also possible for the community council, and any other parties, to set up an alert on any planning submissions within a defined geographic area via our website. In this case such an alert would have notified the community council on July 1, rather than awaiting the subsequently published weekly list. We are happy to assist the community council with setting up this type of alert if needed.
“On this basis, the request for an extension was not granted as there was still sufficient time for the community council to respond and there were no justifiable reasons to grant an extension. We would be willing to consider whether any formal protocol is required to address this type of request in future.
“It should be noted that the community council did submit an objection comment on time and this has been registered accordingly and is available to view on the planning portal.
“The response will be reviewed accordingly and will be taken into consideration when determining the application.”
