Councillors urged to ‘stick to the plan’ by road campaigners

Halliman Way - Reporter backed plans for access route
Halliman Way – plans to make it main link to new housing estate

MORAY COUNCILLORS ARE being urged to “stick to the plan” when they gather next week to consider objections to controversial access routes for a major home development in Lossiemouth.

Members of the Stop B.A.D. Access Group will speak at a public planning hearing next week when a decision is expected to be made over the use of two quite cul-de-sacs as main access points to the 300+ homes development.

For over a year campaigners living around the Boyd Anderson Drive area of the town have been fighting what they say is a serious departure from the Moray Local Plan, which allows for new access roads from the A941 Lossiemouth to Elgin road and B9135 road linking RAF Lossiemouth with the A941.

However, planners are being asked to depart from the Local Plan and allow traffic to be linked to and from the site through Fisher Place and Halliman Way to Boyd Anderson Drive.

Last night members of the group attended a meeting of the Lossiemouth Community Council where they were assured the “continued and full support” of members.

Speaking on behalf of the campaign group, Robert Murdoch said: “We believe the people of Lossiemouth are totally in support of our position – the community council have backed it and are understandably baffled by the fact that although they have lodged objections to the access plan for the site, they have not been invited to state their position at the hearing.

“Council planning officials also claimed that the Community Council had decided not to present a petition from us as part of the consultation, but rather asked for it to be forwarded to the reporter – but that is not the view held by community councillors.

“The Moray Council deal with people on a range of issues as if they are at war with the public – they are seeking to keep secret the true nature of the impact on the town by having road plans dealt with separately from this application. That is not good enough.”

Objections to the application will be heard at a public meeting of the Planning and Regulatory Services Committee on Thursday, May 28 at 2pm.