A developer has appealed to the Scottish Government after a housing and retail development on the edge of a north-east town was rejected by councillors.
Holyrood’s Department for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) division will review the local authority’s decision to refuse planning permission in principle for Stewart Milne Homes’ proposals for Mains of Cowie near Stonehaven.
The plans were for 250 houses, a school, community facilities and a supermarket on what is currently farmland.
The application was rejected in June, along with others for the New Mains of Ury and the Mill of Forest.
However, a supermarket, 50-bedroom hotel and restaurant development on the Ury Estate, submitted by the FM Group, was backed on the same day.
The firm is also behind plans for an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course, a number of homes and the redevelopment of Ury House on the land near Stonehaven.
An application from Barratt North Scotland and Drum Development Co for Mill of Forest was for a supermarket, 500 homes, employment and retail land and a bridge across the A90 Aberdeen-Dundee road.
The New Mains of Ury application, submitted by the Sluie Estate Trust, was for a sole supermarket.
Planners had originally urged councillors to reject all four applications and warned about their impact on Stonehaven.
Stewart Milne Homes’ original plans for 400 homes at the Mains of Cowie were rejected by the Kincardine and Mearns area committee last year.
A scaled-down version of the development was then submitted to the council.
Last night, SNP councillor for Stonehaven and District, Graeme Clark, said: “It was one of three or four that we turned down for being the wrong development in the wrong place.
“The development we gave authority for was the Ury Estate one, mainly because from my point of view I felt, although it was against the local development plan, we could accommodate that development.
“If it has gone to appeal, we’ll wait and see what they say. I felt personally it (the Mains of Cowie) was too big for Stonehaven and there wouldn’t be the infrastructure in Stonehaven for a development of that size.
“We looked at all the different applications and decided the one at Ury Esate would be the best one and wouldn’t impact on local services.”
A DPEA spokeswoman said the appeal would soon move to the next stage in the process.
