PLANS to build a new house on the Cowal Peninsula have been refused by council officers – more than three years after they were first submitted.
The proposal by Sascha and Jemma Klengel for the site east of Kandahar at Glendaruel was recommended to receive approval by Argyll and Bute Council, having initially been submitted in August 2022.
However, the authority has now advised the applicants that the application has been refused on the grounds of increased traffic at the site.
The council received only one expression of support from the public during the planning process, and a planning officer recommended approval in a handling report in September 2024.
But a letter to the applicants said: “Policies 35, 37 and 39 of the Argyll and Bute Local Development Plan 2 state that further development using an existing access will only be accepted if that access is either safe and appropriate in its current form or else is capable of commensurate improvements considered by the roads authority to be appropriate to the scale and nature of the proposed new development.
“In those cases where commensurate improvements are considered to be necessary, the applicant should secure ownership of the private access to allow for commensurate improvements to be made to the satisfaction of the planning authority or demonstrate that an appropriate agreement has been concluded with the existing owner(s) to allow for commensurate improvements to be made.
“As the erection of a new dwellinghouse in this location would result in an increase in the number of vehicles entering and leaving the traffic stream on the A886 road at the bellmouth and driveway that serve the existing dwellinghouse (Kandahar), the area roads department has recommended that visibility splays of 160 metres x 2.4 metres should be formed and, thereafter, maintained in both directions as measured from the existing junction.”
The council added: “The land required to facilitate the formation and maintenance of the recommended visibility splays is outwith the boundaries of the application site and is not within the ownership or direct control of the applicants.
“In the absence of a Section 75 obligation being concluded, it has not been demonstrated that the visibility splays are capable of the minimum requirement for commensurate improvements appropriate to the scale and nature of the proposed development.
“In view of the foregoing, it is considered that the proposed development would result in an increase in the number of vehicles entering and leaving the traffic stream on the A886 road at an existing bellmouth and driveway where visibility is restricted, thus creating interference with the safety and free flow of the traffic on this A-class road.
“As such, the proposal is considered to be contrary to the provisions of policies 35, 37 and 39 of the Argyll and Bute Local Development Plan 2.”
