PLANS for 18 flats and three shop units on the site of a former Oban hotel have been given the go-ahead by council officers despite nine objections.
The site of the former Argyll Hotel, on the town’s Corran Esplanade, was the subject of an application for planning permission by Paul Sloan.
Two expressions of support were also received from the public by Argyll and Bute Council during the planning process, along with two neutral representations.
Planning permission was previously awarded for 15 studio apartments over three floors, with a restaurant unit on the ground floor, was approved by the council in 2023. The Argyll Hotel was demolished in 2011.
A council officer said in a handling report: “The most recent permission for the site proposed a contemporary designed, four storey pitched roof structure with a triple gable frontage to its public elevation which faces the public road and Oban Bay beyond.
“The older but ‘live’ planning permission for a 63-bedroom hotel (granted in 2012) with public bar and restaurant and incorporating a caretaker’s flat is a substantially larger five/six storey development adjoining both the Regent Hotel and the Oban Inn.
“The currently proposed development is for a simple, contemporary five-storey flat-roofed building similar to, but smaller than, the ‘live’ permission and incorporates three new retail units to the ground floor street frontage, each unit separated by close entrances providing access to the rear of the development and to the proposed residential flats; two of which are positioned behind the shop units on the ground floor with the remaining seventeen residential flats occupying the upper four floors.
“The scale of the proposed development has been carefully considered and whilst it fills the width of the existing gap site, it has been designed to sit substantially lower than the Regent Hotel immediately to the north and higher than the Oban Inn adjoining to the south but approximately the same height as the other buildings facing Stafford Street.
“Whilst a contemporary design, it is considered that it works well within this vacant town centre gap site, where the ascending ridge line will ensure that it does not appear as an overly dominant feature within the streetscene and will not detract from the more traditional buildings, particularly in the Stafford Street streetscene.”
Addressing an objection which raised concerns over already vacant shops in the town, the officer said: “Whilst it is acknowledged that there are currently a small number of vacant retail units within the town, the proposed development site is located within the defined town centre area where both national and local planning policy requires an ‘active’ ground floor and street frontage.
“Whilst this could, in principle, equally be say a restaurant or similar, this is a matter for the developer.”
