Council planners have recommended a public hearing is held over plans for a new council estate development in Aberdeen after hundreds of objections.
First Endeavour LLP wants to build 302 homes on land at Wellheads Road in Dyce which would be run by the local authority.
But the plans have proved controversial locally and more than 283 letters of objection have been submitted along with 36 in support of the project.
Issues raised include the scale of the development, a lack of local amenities, the four or five storey height of the buildings and the potential for traffic congestion.
The council’s own environmental health team has also objected to the proposal siting the potential of disruption of aircraft noise from the nearby airport for residents of the development.
Local authority leaders have pledged to build more than 2,000 council homes over the next four years to tackle the backlog of more than 6,000 on the waiting list.
The homes had originally been envisaged as affordable social housing but the plans were then altered so they would become council flats.
In an unusual move, planning officers have recommended that councillors on the planning committee vote for a public meeting rather than just supporting or refusing the plans.
In a report to next Thursday’s planning committee meeting, they write: “Given the significant level of objection and the nature of the matters raised, it is considered that the most appropriate manner of addressing these concerns is to convene a hearing…”
A spokesman for First Endeavour LLP said: “We are delighted with this (recommendation).
“We welcome the chance to answer many of the comments that were put forward in the objections in a way that is helpful for them to understand our plans in the community.
“We have had an internationally recognised firm of acoustic engineers, who act for the British Airport Authority, and we had them carry out the modelling for our development and we are absolutely confident in their assessment.”
