The Scottish Government has quashed plans to redevelop an “eyesore” petrol station on the edge of an Aberdeenshire town.
Councillors twice rejected the proposals – most recently in April last year – to replace Craighall filling station, on Ellon’s South Road, with two blocks of flats.
In response the site owners, Buckie’s Regency Oils Ltd, appealed the decision to the Scottish Government’s directorate for planning and environmental appeals (DPEA).
Aberdeenshire Council’s Formartine area committee had unanimously refused to grant planning permission to the scheme after raising concerns about its scale and impact.
Chairman of the Formartine area committee and Ellon and District SNP councillor, Rob Merson, said the decision was a “victory for common sense”.
He added: “I am delighted that the reporter has supported my own view that the proposal was an over-development of the site, and would have created an overbearing impact which was completely out of context in that streetscape.”
He said that the local community “would welcome a more appropriate and sympathetic development of that site”, but called on the site’s owners to “take action to tidy up the site” in the interim.
Mr Merson added: “Failing which, I will be writing to the director of infrastructure services requesting that enforcement action is taken to bring the site up to an acceptable standard.”
The DPEA’s decision notice said the development “would look particularly out of place as the site is very close to the southern edge of the town”.
A spokesman for Regency Oils Ltd was not available for comment.
