A former councillor who is leading a housing development in Dalbeattie has won a second battle with local residents.
David James, who represented the Castle Douglas and Crocketford ward from 2017-2022, intends on building 12 modern homes on a 3942m² stretch of land north of Barhill Road.
He is submitting planning applications to Dumfries and Galloway Council for permission to build houses in each stage of the development.
In August, planning chiefs approved the construction of two homes, despite complaints from nearby residents in Queens Grove. Neighbours had argued that any development will exacerbate flooding issues and could potentially destroy the habitat of wildlife such as red squirrels and roe deer.
Six objections were lodged with the council – five from people in Barhill Road and one in Glenairlie Terrace – over the latest application for a house on the site.
Local resident Margaret Copp submitted a written objection to the planning committee and also handed in photographs of flooding which occurred next to the housing development site in February last year.
She stated: “If more land is concreted over then the flooding will only be exasperated.
“The water runs down from the wood and the present field acts as a small flood plain. The council has already spent money trying to stop the flooding in the gardens directly across from the proposed development and have been largely successful.
“If the development does go ahead then they may have to spend more money correcting the work already done.”
Mr James, who appeared at last week’s planning committee, responded: “The flooding is lower down Barhill Road and it is from surface water on the road.
“This field plays absolutely no part in it. The field drains into the burn.
“We’ve had a picture there (shown) of the burn in Dalbeattie Park but that’s a connecting burn which is 100 metres away.
“This proposal is entirely outwith the flood plain and it has a SUDs (sustainable drainage) scheme to attenuate flow during downpours.”
Neither the council’s flood risk management team or Scottish Envrionmental Protection Agency (SEPA) had any objections.
SEPA stated in the planning report: “The proposed development is outwith the flood plain and no land raising is intended in the flood plain to facilitate the development.”
Councillors agreed to grant planning permission.
Speaking at the council’s planning committee, Mr James said: “I will criticise my own project in one respect and that’s on developer contributions.
“We had agreed to supply two plots discounted into the local market but when it came to the final stage it appeared that the council didn’t have enough legal capacity to process such a route.
“I had to sign up to the disappointing option of just a cash payment.
“And thanks to the intervention of David Suttie (planning and building standards manager) we did get where we are today. He stepped in and dragged us all out of the planning quagmire that we were in several months ago.”
