A new holiday lodge has been approved at Banff more than a year after first being refused, and a new home will be built near the site of a forgotten Deeside railway station…
All these and more feature in this week’s Planning Ahead, our weekly round-up of the latest proposals being pondered across the north-east.
Every week we bring readers a selection of the most interesting applications submitted to our councils to form changes big and small in our communities.
But first, we look at plans to breathe new life into a grotty Peterhead premises…
Upgrades on the way for Blue Toon building
A Peterhead construction boss has been given the go-ahead to revamp a derelict building on the town’s Rose Street.
Darren Byrne, who is listed as a director of EOS Construction and Roofing Ltd, wants to do up 8 Rose Street – a crumbling property just off the town centre.
The four-bedroom home was previously listed for sale for £60,000 – and advertised as having “a great deal of potential”.
Mr Byrne’s plans involve replacing the windows of the C-listed, 19th century building while adding en-suite bathrooms.
Methlick butcher shop empty for 24 years
The owner of a closed butcher’s shop in Methlick is trying to adjust some paperwork amid a red tape wrangle…
John Cooper lives at the attached Roslynne home on the village’s Main Road.
Mr Coooper, who is listed as the director of a forestry firm, explains the predicament in papers sent to Aberdeenshire Council.
He explains that he needs to ensure the site is classed as “residential” rather than a shop, as the butcher closed 24 years ago.
The Methlick man says this is “primarily” needed to prevent Scottish Water applying business rates for the water supply to the space.
The document states: “The old shop is currently used as a store and drying room, it is effectively an outbuilding.
“It has been empty apart from storage since 2000.”
Queen’s Road home plan approved
An office premises in Aberdeen will be turned back into a pair of granite villas as more and more firms relocate from grand old granite buildings in the city’s west end.
The building on 52-54 Queens Road was latterly home to professional services firm RSM, who moved into the Capitol on Union Street earlier this year.
It had been offered to let as workplaces for some time until A Robb Investments Ltd swooped in with plans to turn the adjoining properties into homes in the summer.
The villas were designed in 1885 for famed builder John Morgan, who lived next door and was the brain behind some of Aberdeen’s nicest buildings.
Specialising in granite cutting and carving, he worked on the extension to Marischal College and the Northern Assurance Company (better know as The Monkey House).
His former house will now be turned into two homes, each with three bedrooms.
West end resident wants to restore wall destroyed by tree
Nearby, another west end resident will try his hand at granite carving and cutting.
Robert Brown wants to rebuild his front garden wall, which has been destroyed by a decades-old beech tree.
Having preserved all of the remains of the ruined boundary, he is seeking permission to restore it – but on a lesser scale so he can preserve the tree.
Inchgarth Community Centre extension plans
Across in Garthdee, council chiefs want to extend the Inchgarth Community Centre as the number of residents using it grows by the day.
Housing officers say the centre welcomes more than 130,000 of visitors every year, and has more than 150 activities on offer.
They say it is particularly popular with disabled people, many of whom travel from other parts of the city.
The building was once used as a post-war primary school. It closed in the 1980s and a large part of it was demolished.
Since then, the facility has undergone a number of changes as the list of activities on offer there continued to get bigger and bigger.
And now, city chiefs want to built an extension to the east of the centre to meet growing demand.
If approved, the new complex will feature a multi-purpose hall with ancillary accommodation, additional toilets and a new management office.
There will be a café with a kitchen in the foyer, and a new entrance which will become the main one to access the campus.
Disabled parking bays and EV charging points will also be created.
Upgrades planned for Royal Guard barracks in Ballater
Over in Deeside, there are plans to bring the Victorian Barracks in Ballater into the 21st Century.
The seven Tudor-style buildings home the Royal Guard when the monarch is staying at Balmoral Castle – usually at the end of summer.
The barracks were built as temporary accommodation in 1850 for the Royal Guard when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert acquired the Deeside estate.
A row of Elizabethan cottages were converted into permanent barracks in 1869 and some flat-roofed oriental-looking buildings were erected on the site 35 years later.
However, some of the old huts were removed in 1969 as they tried to make the royal complex more modern.
And more recently, they were used to house evacuated families during the weather chaos of Storm Frank in late 2015.
Owners are now seeking permission to install WiFi in the single-storey buildings to make communication between staff and members of the British Army easier.
Home at former Glassel railway station approved
It has been a long time since the last train clacked its way along the tracks at Glassel, near Banchory.
The rural railway station there served Glassel House, the Mill of Beltie and local farms between 1859 and 1966.
Now plans for a new house have been approved just yards away from the old station on the Aberdeen to Ballater line.
Papers sent to Aberdeenshire Council explain how a manmade railway embankment
“formerly ran from south-east to north-west through the site”.
Architects look back on the history of the community, saying the original Glassel station, station master’s house and Glassel Post Office were converted to houses around the time of the infamous Beeching cuts.
The railway line has been “lost over the years” as more houses were built in Glassel – with some erected where the historic tracks once lined the land.
This new home will have three bedrooms.
Designers say it would “provide a distinctive, safe, pleasant, welcoming, adaptable, efficient and well connected dwelling”.
Midmar residents fight housing plan
Over at Midmar, locals have been making their thoughts known about plans for a new housing development.
Callan Homes wanted to build 12 new homes on the Roadside of Corsindae, within a walking distance of the small Aberdeenshire village.
Documents say the site has been vacant for a number of years, and creating a new complex would bring it back into use amid increasing demand for housing.
Architects add the proposed houses would have all had private gardens and parking, and been designed “to match the style and character” of the homes in Midmar.
But following a backlash from residents in the village, the developers have now withdrawn their planning application.
What are Midmar residents saying?
Members of the Midmar Community Council raised concerns over the “crowded development”, saying there would be safety issues with children going to school.
They also feared new home owners there – if the plans were to go ahead – might have had issues with noise coming from regular functions held at the nearby village hall.
Elizabeth Smith echoed those concerns, and added: “The Midnar hall offers, and relies on, a range of events and activities for the community and others.
“This means there is some noise in the evening, or in the community garden, such as baby and toddler groups, celebrations and community events.
“By placing houses so close to the boundary, it would make it impossible to hold any events and the community would lose a vital amenity”.
Banff holiday lodge APPROVED at second time of asking
And last – but certainly not least, a new luxury holiday lodge will be built near Banff after owners fought for more than two years to get the project across the line.
Alan and Pauline Bruce first lodged plans for the exclusive getaway in March 2022.
They wanted to build it on land next to Craig Alvah Lodge, which they also own.
The couple also has permission to build 12 smaller holiday cottages nearby, however they have “no immediate intention” to construct them.
However, Banff and Buchan councillors refused the scheme last year – despite claims that the six-bedroom lodge could bring a massive tourism boost to the area.
Jennifer Ross from John Wink Design told them that in 2022 more than 4,300 visitors stayed at Craig Alvah Lodge, and there is now demand for larger accommodation.
But their concern was that while this could draw more visitors to Banff, there is nothing to ensure that it would be used as a holiday home rather than a personal residence.
And after a small tweak to the plans, the project has now been given the go-ahead – with a written condition the lodge would be built and used only by guests.
The new house will have six bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom, along with an open kitchen, dining and lounge area.
Meanwhile, a hot tub and fire pit would be formed in the garden for visitors to make the most of their stay.
The luxury holiday lodge is expected to bring 3,000 new visitors to the Banff area.
You can see this week’s plans using these links:
Midmar housing plans scrapped after backlash
Banff holiday lodge approved
This post was originally published on here
