CONTROVERSIAL PLANS TO open up two quiet cul-de-sacs in Lossiemouth could be reignited this week when they are subject to ‘Stopping Up’ orders.
A local protest group was formed last year to fight plans to use Halliman Way and Fisher Place in Lossiemouth as access points for a new housing estate on the south side of the town.
Residents fought to block the move, arguing that no such proposals had appeared in the original local development plan and, in any case, a second access to the new 278-home site being developed by Tullochs of Cummingston was not really required.
However, a special planning meeting in November narrowly took the view that it was a requirement under Scottish Government guidance to create a second access route – and gave the go-ahead for developers to open up the cul-de-sacs.
Now the plan to open out the cul-de-sacs – or ‘hammerheads’ as the local authority prefers to call them – will again go through a consultation process, with members of the planning and regulatory services committee being asked to agree the start of the process when they meet tomorrow.
In a report to the committee, Legal Services manager Aileen Scott advises councillors: “To enable the Planning Consent to be properly implemented amendments require to be made to the existing road layout at Halliman Way and Fisher Place in Lossiemouth.
“The hammerheads require to be stopped up and thereafter will be replaced by new sections of road to provide points of access into the new development. As the changes to the road layout arise from the implementation of a Planning Consent, it is appropriate to promote the Stopping Up Orders under the Planning Act as opposed to under Roads Legislation.
“That is the reason this Committee is being asked to grant the appropriate authority to pursue the Stopping Up Orders under Section 207 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 as amended.”
If agreed, Ms Scott advises councillors that the proposed orders would be advertised “and the results of a consultation process will be brought back to committee in due course”.
It is expected that such consultation would provide a second opportunity for local residents to make their case against the Order.