Councillors to decide on 400-home Banchory development

Aberdeenshire councillors will today decide wether to approve 400 homes in an expanding Aberdeenshire town.

Bancon Group is seeking approval from Aberdeenshire Council for the Lochside of Leys master plan at Hill of Banchory at today’s Marr Area Committee.

The proposals will be split across three sites on the land, which is situated at the east end of the Deeside town, and will be delivered in three phases.

Some 345 houses are planned for two locations on either side of the Loch of Leys nature conservation site, and another 50 in the Upper Lochton area, off Raemoir Road.

A new road between Raemoir Road and the North Deeside Road also forms part of the scheme, as well as shops, a football pitch, and a park and ride site.

An Aberdeenshire Council report on the project has described it as a “sympathetic expansion of Banchory” which will not affect the River Dee – a Scottish Natural Heritage special area of conservation.

Development at the Hill of Banchory has led to a surge in the town’s population from 6,034 in 2001 to more than 8,000 in 2012.