Council officials have refused a religious group’s latest application to build a church in West Kinfauns outside Perth.
Perth Gospel Trust failed to secure consent to create a new place of worship on Walnut Grove two years ago after planners concluded the proposal “would take up almost half” of an undeveloped open space near the A90 and “would over dominate the area”.
The group sent a new application to PKC earlier this year saying they had scaled down their plans and reduced the number of car parking spaces they wished to provide for worshippers to appease officials who raised concerns about their initial proposal.
However, the council’s planning team has now refused the trust’s latest application using delegated powers after concluding the proposal would still take up too much existing open space and draw too much traffic to the area.
They said in a report of handling: “Following the previous refusal on this site the proposed building has been resited towards the south and some landscaping is proposed.
“However, the visual amenity value of the open space is still compromised by the proposal.
“The supporting statement suggests that the development would allow the open space to be accessible to the public to some degree.
“However, the use suggests that it would be primarily for those that use the place of worship rather than being of benefit to the wider residential community and its value as [an] open, undeveloped green buffer ... would still be diminished.
“The proposed development is therefore still considered contrary to policy 14A of the LDP as it would result in the loss of an area of open space of amenity value.”
The report added: “The size of the building and capacity has not changed although the proposal now includes less formal car parking spaces and four cycle stands.
“Kinfauns is a hamlet with a small population and a relatively infrequent bus service and it is noted that the times of worship do not coincide with the existing timetabled bus services.
“The previous reason for refusal is therefore still valid as the proposal is not in a location considered to be sufficiently accessible in terms of the provision made for access by modes of transport other than the private car.”
