Revamped proposals for a housing scheme on the edge of a north-east town centre have been backed by councillors.
Charity Sanctuary Scotland yesterday won planning permission to build dozens of low-cost properties at the site of an old nursing home in Peterhead.
Its original proposal for the King Street site was scrapped last year after opposition from neighbours and Aberdeenshire Council roads officers. The Glasgow group, which provides support for people struggling to get on the property ladder, went back to the drawing board and revised its plan for the vacant £1.1million site, known as Craigewan.
The new plan retains the original number of properties, 20 flats and 29 houses, but with a slightly different lay-out.
Yesterday, members of the Buchan area committee backed the scheme.
Councillors were told the fresh application had attracted two complaints from residents who feared it could lead to an increase in traffic through nearby Sutherland Avenue.
Council officers said road issues and access arrangements were subject to further negotiations.
The previous proposal drew complaints from people living in nearby Cooperage Square. In a joint letter signed by several households, tenants raised fears that the development could impact on their homes and rob them of daylight.
They also demanded to know what sort of people were likely to live in the low-cost homes.
The council bought the old Craigewan nursing home site, in partnership with the Tenants First Housing Co-operative, for £1.1million in 2009.
Tenants First became a subsidiary of the Scottish Sanctuary Group in 2012.
Councillors backed another Sanctuary Scotland scheme at their meeting in Peterhead yesterday.
It involves the creation of two houses and 11 flats at land on the corner of Ugie Street and St Peter Street, near the former Craigewan Nursing Home development.
Aberdeenshire Council has already agreed to knock down century-old granite flats to make way for the development.
The charity will manage the new Ugie Street homes on the local authority’s behalf.