PEOPLE IN MORAY had a first look on Monday at plans for one of the largest expansions of Elgin ever undertaken.
Council planners last month paved the way for the creation of 1500 new homes on land belonging to Pitgaveny Estate on their 276-acre site that stretches from Duffus Road to the A941 Elgin/Lossiemouth road.
At the Alexander Graham Bell centre yesterday the scope of the plans were put on public show for the first time, revealing a 20 to 30 year project that will transform the northern boundaries of Elgin.
Visitors were guided through a display that demonstrated the massive breadth of proposals that would in addition to the homes see a new business park, school and recreational facilities.
“We want to do something for Elgin that has not really been done before,” co-owner of Pitgaveny Estate, Rebecca Russell, said. She added: “We are really looking to include all generations in the consultation process.”
The proposals were drawn up by Pitgaveny and chartered surveyors Savills-Smith Gore, with local expert Donald Lunan recruited as a planning adviser. He said: “The development has attracted a fair bit of interest and the exhibition was quite busy.
“A number of the questions asked centred on the movement of traffic – we explained how it would be managed at each stage of the development. People realised that this is a long term development plan, it will not involve 1500 houses simply appearing and pouring cars onto the streets of Elgin.”
The exhibition was attended by young people from the Elgin Youth Café and Elgin Academy, who had been invited to participate by Mr Lunan who said: “This is such a long-term development that it might be the town’s younger folk who are most interested in living there in future years.”