Dentist loses bid for Donside practice

Concerns over increase in traffic

Published:

AN ABERDEEN dentist has lost out in his bid to set up a new practice on Donside.

Aberdeenshire councillors backed their planners and local opposition to the proposal and turned down a planning application aimed at converting a house into a surgery.

Objectors raised concerns about increased traffic in the area of the proposed surgery – at Tullynessle, near Alford – and claimed that there was no need for an additional dental practice in the area as plans had previously been approved to turn a shop in nearby Alford into a dentist’s surgery.

The current application, to convert part of a house at Burndale, Tullynessle, into a dental surgery, came from Ross McClelland, Waverley Dental Practice, Waverley Place, Aberdeen.

Members of the Marr area committee, meeting at Huntly yesterday, were told in a report there were 13 letters of objection, raising issues such as increased traffic; not enough car parking; conflict with farming operations; the impact on the quality of life of nearby residents, and the contamination risk from chemicals discharging into a nearby burn.

The council’s roads service also raised concerns about lack of parking and the prospect of vehicles having to park on a public road and causing obstruction problems for other users.

Donside Community Council said that they supported businesses starting up in the area but also objected on the grounds of parking, access and disturbance to nearby residents.

A planning service report said that no business plan had been provided for the application and no economic need had been established to support the change of use.