The Scottish Govt Reporter, Mr Keith Bray, will be visiting the Glenbrook site next Wednesday 3rd October, at 2.30pm. Everyone who is concerned about this development proposal is welcome to attend and give their views. This is an opportunity for the community to show up and demonstrate a strong show of opposition to the proposals. More details below:
As local people may already know, developers Clarendon & Simon Thomson have appealed to the Reporter / DPEA on this proposal, purely on the grounds that CEC have delayed any decision for too long. Local people need to write to the Reporter, by Friday 7.9.18, to put across the same points that were originally made to CEC Planning. This latest move by the developers effectively bypasses the elected CEC planning committee, by lodging an appeal to a single unelected government official.
Residents may recall that this application was refused by CEC Planning in January of this year. Since then, the developer appealed the decision to CEC Planning Dept. This appeal has once again been refused by the CEC Planning Local Review Body (LRB). The refusal letter from LRB is attached here.
Many residents responded to the review notice with detailed and well argued letters of objection, and these seem to have been duly noted by CEC Planning.
Residents will be relieved to learn that the application to build 5 houses in the Bankhead/Glenbrook area, promoted by local landowner Simon Thomson & Clarendon land agents has been refused.
The refusal was based on 3 points:
Developers Clarendon, with local landowner Simon Thomson, have recently submitted a new application to build up to 53 houses by the junction of the Johnsburn / Glenbrook road – see previous posts for map. This application is for development on Green Belt land, and is not part of the recently published Local Development Plan.
The new deadline for comments is Friday 27th October – to submit comments, please read on…
Developers Clarendon have recently submitted a minor proposal to build a preliminary 5 houses, on land adjacent to the proposed 60 house development that is already earmarked for Glenbrook Road (see previous post). It is not hard to see that this small scale proposal could pave the way for the main Glenbrook development to go ahead more smoothly. Add this to the fact that the local landowner (Simon Thomson) owns the Goodtrees land to the west of Cockburn Crescent, and that Clarendon were the agents behind the twice refused Cockburn Cres proposal for 150 houses to the south of Cockburn Crescent.
In the light of this, it may be wise for residents to comment on this seemingly minor proposal.
Now that the Ravelrig development is inevitable, Balerno Community Council have begun negotiations with CEC (City of Edinburgh Council) and CALA Homes to make the best of a bad deal for Balerno. Whilst asserting that the housing represents the wrong houses in the wrong place (but great news for CALA’s record £60 m. profits) the community needs to demand the best possible outcomes from a wealthy developer who will be building up at Ravelrig for the next 4-5 years, adding to local traffic congestion with lorries, vans & earth movers. Continue reading
Last week residents were informed by the government Reporter that developers Gladman have been successful in their appeal – against the refusal by City of Edinburgh Council – to build 120 houses on Green Belt near the Ravelrig Road. Balerno Community Council is calling a residents meeting about the proposal on Thurs 13th August at 7pm in Balerno High School.
Balerno Green Belt group has produced a poster which you can display in your window to show your support.
Please download and print it out if you support the Green Belt around Balerno.
Window poster 2015.07(PDF, 630 KB)
The Reporters decision on the Appeal by developers Barratt David Wilson to develop the land south of Cockburn Cres has been announced today – and the answer is still a Refusal. This is the second appeal by the developers since the first one was lodged in March 2014. Residents might be wondering why a second appeal was allowed to be submitted so soon after the first had been so comprehensively rejected by the Reporter. Download decision here.
