PLANS for a new extension and kitchen facilities at a church on the Cowal Peninsula have been approved – nearly two years after the application was first made.
The Kirk Session of West Cowal applied for permission to demolish and replace the existing extension at Kilmodan Church in Clachan of Glendaruel in August 2023.
Argyll and Bute Council has now awarded planning permission and listed building consent for those and other works to take place.
No objections or expressions of support were received from the public by the council during the planning process.
A council planning officer said in a handling report: “The first of the new extensions will be on the same footprint as the one to be demolished and it will accommodate the new kitchen.
“The relocated air source heat pumps will be on the rear of this new extension. It will have a door which will face east – the most prominent of all the elevations of the new extension.
“The second extension will be on the other side of the original rear entrance and on the site of the previously approved air source heat pumps.
“It will also be 15sqm and will accommodate a new single toilet and a disabled toilet. A new door opening will be required to connect into the original church building.
“The proposed works will be located on an elevation that is particularly visually inconspicuous given the presence of a stone boundary wall to the immediate north and the juxtaposition of the north and west-facing walls.
“The extensions will provide a symmetry to the rear extension – albeit it is not viewed extensively from this angle. The materials are proposed to be sensitive to the original church with the white harling being a good match and the lead roof providing a contrast.”
The officer added: “It is considered that the external alterations to the building would be appropriate and, as such, they would have a ‘neutral’ effect on the character and appearance of the wider Bute local landscape area.”
