A crucial planning hearing tomorrow could finally end a long-standing row over a major housing development in a coastal Moray town.
Developers Tulloch of Cummingston have spent more than three years seeking permission to build 278 new homes in the Sunbank area of Lossiemouth, near the high school.
They hope to use roads at Halliman Way and Fisher Place to reach Boyd Anderson Drive from the new builds.
However, local protesters have fought the proposals tirelessly and criticised the “ridiculous” intention to direct traffic to the site along the two cul-de-sacs rather than via the A941 and B9135.
The rumbling argument will come to a head in the chamber of Moray Council, as both sides put their cases across to the local authority’s planning committee.
Campaigners fighting the road formed The Stop the Boyd Anderson Drive (BAD) Access group.
Member Robert Murdoch last night said: “The right decision is that they stick to the local plan and that is our main contention.
“They originally said the main accesses would be to the A941 and the B9135, when all the time they were discussing using the cul-de-sacs as a substantive primary access to the development.
“We are not angered the development is taking place. We want there to be houses there. The issue for us is there is something funny gone on here, and we are hoping for the right decision to be made on Wednesday.”
The hearing was originally scheduled for the end of May, but military chiefs requested they be given more time to inspect the proposal to ensure the housing development would not have any negative impact on radar equipment at the nearby RAF Lossiemouth base.
At the end of July RAF officials agreed they had no objection to the development.
Tulloch of Cummingston manager John Tulloch said: “First and foremost, this will provide new affordable housing to meet the undoubted need in Lossiemouth.
“We have been three to four years trying to progress this application from its initial stages.
“We have had to jump through a lot of hoops to get where we are today, and I think what we have proposed does accommodate the concerns that have been voiced, particularly around the Boyd Anderson Drive area.”