Furious Nairn and Lochloy residents have ramped up their protest against proposals for 115 new houses in Kingsteps South with a placard campaign ahead of a site visit by Highland councillors next week.
Kingsteps Residents Group has placed a dozen placards along the Kingsteps road and say as many neighbours as possible will assemble for the site visit to make sure councillors on the south planning applications committee understand their concerns.
The placards contain messages such as ‘Highland Council listen to the people’ and ‘More traffic chaos? No thanks’.
If consented, the new development will bring to more than 800 the number of houses at Lochloy, an area where 20 years ago residents were told 350 would be the maximum number.
Supported by Nairn River Community Council and Nairn Residents Concern Group, residents say the housing density is too high; the site boundaries have crept outwards; the single access road won’t cope with the extra traffic pressure; the site has a watercourse through it and is proven to flood; nearby Nairn can barely cope with the current drainage and sewerage demands; and the environmental impact on ancient woodland and meadows in an area which hosts several dozen badger setts is unacceptable.
Lack of amenities and broken developer promises to build pedestrian links into the town are also part of their catalogue of objections.
More than 100 objections were placed before Highland Council during the application process by developer Springfield Properties.
At the most recent planning committee meeting to determine Springfield’s application, the protestors asked for and were denied, a pre-determination hearing.
Instead councillors agreed to a site visit, to take place on the morning of Wednesday August 8.
Morton Gillespie, whose property is affected by the development said: “A number of cars stopped as we were putting up the signs to wish us luck and support.
“They all thought that the proposals were ridiculous and would lead to yet more expansion of houses into the fields to the east.”
South planning applications committee chairman Jimmy Gray said: “The site visit is primarily for the members of the committee to understand the physical characteristics of the site.
“On the day any objector can point out issues as regards road junctions, the sheer size of the site and so on and ask the members to take on board whatever the specific issue is so that the physical characteristics are fully understood.”
A spokesman from Springfield Properties said: “The Kingsteps site in Nairn has been recommended for approval and we welcome the councillors’ visit.”
***You can hear Mr Gillespie and Loreine Thomson of Nairn Residents Concern Group talking about their concerns in In Your Own Words, a series of podcasts by local government reporter Susy Macaulay on the Press & Journal website***