Controversial plans for a new service station in the north-east have been rejected by councillors over major road safety concerns.
The Aberdeenshire infrastructure services committee heard from objectors that if the Laurencekirk services proposal was approved, it would ‘leave blood on the hands of the council’.
Councillors voted yesterday and emphatically rejected the application by Luther Farm Services by 11 votes to two.
Plans for major hotel, restaurant and petrol station complex off A90 take step forward
Much of the criticism of the scheme focused on the fact drivers would be forced to cross the A90 dual carriageway at a narrow junction to reach the facilities.
Councillor Paul Johnston lodged a motion to refuse the application because the roads were not wide enough and there was ‘sufficient evidence’ for refusal.
Meeting chair Peter Argyle agreed and said: “I’m aware of all the efforts we’ve had to try and help safety on the A90.
“I can’t support even a good project if it requires the crossing of the A90.”
The applicants explained the plans included a petrol station, hotel, restaurant and the opportunity for 100 jobs, but would not be accessible to HGVs.
Councillor Sandy Wallace, who supported the project at the Kincardine and Mearns area committee, was disappointed with the outcome.
He said: “It would be a small roadside services since HGV are not included and I think Transport Scotland did not express a [view on] refusal as there’s no real objection or material refusal.
“It would be wonderful if people would drive into the area in search of petrol, but unless they see it they won’t stop.
“We then have the opportunity to bring them in and divert them.”
One of the objectors, who recently got married, said his wife used the road every working day and ‘the last thing I want to see is her under a bus’.
He added that approving the plans would ‘leave blood on the hands of the council’.
The owner of Stracathro services, Pat Melville-Evans, also objected to the venture.
After the decision, she said: “I’m pleased it wasn’t passed from a safety point of view as I have known people who died on that road and, without a flyover as part of the plans, more people would have been killed.”
