Agenda item

Copies of the following papers attached:-

CONTINUATION OF REVIEW 22/00047/RREF

12.1   With reference to paragraph 4 of the Minute of 20 February 2023, the Local Review Body continued their consideration of a request from Marchmont Estates c/o Smith & Garratt, The Guildhall, Ladykirk, Berwick-Upon-Tweed to review the decision to refuse the planning application for the Erection of Class 4 joinery workshop with associated access and parking on Land North and East of Clay Dub Duns Road, Greenlaw.  The supporting papers included the written submissions from the Planning Officer and Applicant in respect of NPF4 and New Information; Notice of Review (including the Decision Notice and Officer’s Report); Papers referred to in the Officer’s report; additional information; further representations; consultation replies; support comments; objections;  and Applicant response; additional information; consultation replies and objections. 

12.2   Members considered the principle of the development under Policies PMD4 and ED7, noting that the site lay outwith the defined settlement boundary for Greenlaw and that the development was consequently for business development in the countryside.  The Review Body noted that there was community support for the site, including from the Community Council, and that the allocated site on the Edinburgh Road in the village had not been taken up.  Members further noted that the intended occupant of the building was a local joinery firm presently operating in Eccles and offered significant local economic benefits to the area if taken up by the firm, being a more sustainable location for employees. Having also conducted an unaccompanied site inspection, the Review Body concluded that the proposal justified an exception to Policy PMD4 and was both an extension to the settlement boundary which would create positive community benefits through local job opportunities and allowing existing firms to expand, whilst also representing a logical extension to the boundary adjoining an existing industrial estate. For similar reasons, they also accepted the proposal under Policy ED7, there being no obvious demand to take up the existing allocated site to the west of the village and the proposal representing an employment generating use on an appropriate site.  Members also considered the loss of prime agricultural land and compliance with Policy ED10, but were of the opinion that the loss was outweighed by the need for the site to allow the expansion of a local business with associated economic benefits.  Finally consideration was given to the siting, design and the likely impact on the surrounding area, but Members were content that appropriate conditions on the development details, landscaping and operation of the use would ensure compliance with the Development Plan.

DECISION

AGREED that:-

(a)     the request for review had been competently made in terms of Section 43A     of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997;

(b)     the review could be considered without the need for any further procedure on            the basis of the papers submitted;

(c)     the officer’s decision to refuse the application be overturned and the application approved for the reasons detailed in Appendix VI to this Minute and subject to conditions.