Plans for a circus to set up on the edge of Livingston have been rejected by councillors.
An agent for the Big Kid Circus claimed his client was a victim of misconceptions as to what was planned.
There would be no “big top with flags and lights,” Martin Drummond told West Lothian Council’s Development Management committee.
Photographs attached to the planning application detailed a big top at 46ft high.
But the site at Oakbank, a former oil village, was designed to hold parked up caravans for winter storage, and a training facility for performers. The plans showed the big top and associated tents of the circus set up for operation alongside scale drawings of a 36ft high geodome the circus wants to build on at Oakbank.
Planners had called for rejection of the plans because the Oakbank site was gradually being returned to the wild after the demolition, at least 40 years ago, of the last of the buildings.
Planners said the site provided a barrier between existing development on Oakbank Road, much of it commercial, and the ancient woodlands around East Calder.
Mr Drummond told the committee: “I think there needs to be some clarification. There is no big top. It would be a geodome, more like the Eden project. There is no intention of erecting a big top.”
He stressed that the site would provide a winter home and training area for circus performers.
Far from an area returning to the wild the site was, at the moment, covered in rubble and fly-tipping, including a dumped vehicle. It was adjacent to existing commercial areas which provided car breaking yards and hardstanding for parked vehicles.
Mr Drummond said his client would be happy to discuss the proposals in detail with planning officers, including the proposals for the geodome, even what colour it could be.” That level of detail is not in the plans”, he added.
Planners argued that the circus had not established its core argument that it needed specifically this site for the winter storage, simply that they wanted a site in central Scotland.
Local member Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick said the area was returning to the wild and that should be allowed to continue.
There were 12 objections including from East Calder Community Council. Core to objections were fears of an increase in traffic in the area citing that the narrow roads were not fit for HGVs.
Councillor Willie Boyle had initially suggested that decisions be delayed to allow greater discussions between the circus and council officers but a motion from Councillor Fitzpatrick against the granting of planning permission prompted him to make an amendment supporting the development. It was defeated at a vote.
