PLANS for a hotel to be built at an Oban car park site have been recommended for approval by council officers, despite six objections from the public.
Fabulously Scottish Hotels Ltd applied for planning permission for the site at Shore Street in 2021, with the aim of building a 30-bedroom hotel.
Argyll and Bute Council’s planning, protective services and licensing (PPSL) committee will now discuss the application at a meeting on Wednesday, August 19, with officers recommending that planning permission is granted.
However, council officials initially recommended refusal in 2023 due to concerns over the number of parking spaces available.
A report ahead of the meeting said: “The proposal is seeking to secure planning permission for a contemporary designed and finished hotel providing 30 letting bedrooms.
“The proposed hotel comprises a three storey, mono-pitched roof structure which takes a rectangular form with its main elevation parallel with the public road which reflects the established development on Shore Street.
“The hotel will provide its reception on the ground floor with lifts and stair accesses leading to the upper floors along with 12 en-suite bedrooms, two of which will accommodate disabled access.
“On the first floor are a further 13 en-suite bedrooms with five en-suite rooms on the second storey each with external terraces facing out over Oban Bay, Kerrera and Mull.
“The one policy of Local Development Plan 2 (LDP2) that does not accord with the proposed development is policy 40 – vehicle parking provision, which requires off-street car and vehicle parking for specified categories of development and to be provided in accordance with a schedule that varies according to the category of development proposed.
“The specific requirement in this case is for 39 off-street parking spaces to serve the development.
“However, due to the precise nature of the site, the proposal provides for just 15 parking spaces, four of which are reserved through a longstanding legal agreement to serve an existing off-site development elsewhere. Therefore, the currently proposed hotel development would provide only 11 off-street parking spaces.
“Given this shortfall, the council’s roads engineers have objected to the application on the grounds that the requirements of LDP2 policy 40 have not been met.
“However, policy 40 of LDP2 sits uncomfortably with policy 13 – sustainable transport – of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). One of the key national planning policy principles of NPF4 is ‘To encourage, promote and facilitate developments that prioritise walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport for everyday travel and reduce the need to travel unsustainably.’
“In support of this key planning principle, NPF4 policy 13 (e) states that ‘Development proposals which are ambitious in terms of low/no car parking will be supported, particularly in urban locations that are well-served by sustainable transport modes and where they do not create barriers to access by disabled people.’”
The officer added: “The developer in this case has stated that the proposal has been specifically designed to reduce reliance on private motor vehicles and has been advanced on the basis of low car parking provision given the town centre location of the development and the very close proximity to the Oban railway station, the Oban bus station and the Oban island ferry terminal.
“In addition, both the location and the design of the building offers no material barrier to disabled people.
“Officers have worked with the developer and with our roads engineers to try to resolve this policy conflict but no resolution acceptable to all parties has been forthcoming.
“Given the above and the detailed discussion in [an appendix], officers are recommending that members accept the low parking provision aspect of the proposed development as a minor departure to policy 40 of LDP2 and resolve to grant planning permission.”
