A planning application to develop a shop in a Hamilton neighbourhood has been rejected due to traffic flow issues.
Councillors at today’s Planning Committee meeting (November 22) rejected the proposals to change the use of an after-school care facility on Argyle Drive into a shop due to the existing busy traffic flow.
In October, councillors deferred the application due to the same concerns and requested a site visit to review the traffic flow.
Results from the site visit have shown that there are grave concerns regarding parking, traffic and deliveries to the proposed shop.
Councillor Davie McLachlan (Hamilton North and East) expressed his concern with the proposed plans following the site visit.
He said: “ I’m quite surprised to hear that there’s no issues from the planning department because it was quite clear on the day of the site visit that there was just no room for any delivery vehicles. The way the parking is in that area it is virtually impossible to get any delivery vehicles to the shop.”
He went on: “The site visit was very clear, my contribution is that i know the area, I travel the area four times every week and when I approach that location, you can’t pass if there’s another vehicle because of the cars parked there.
"The on-street parking of residents takes up most of the space on the road, so I’d day it is impossible to get a delivery vehicle there.”
Councillor McLachlan proposed to refuse the application due to it being an unsuitable location with lack of parking provision for deliveries.
This was seconded by councillor David Watson (East Kilbride West), who said: “This isn’t a small shop, this is quite a big unit which I was surprised at when I turned up at the site visit. And to suggest that deliveries would be done by small vans and cars is a non-starter for us.
“Seeing the site reinforces the view that I made at the last committee meeting, the site is totally inappropriate for this kind of activity, I took the bother of walking around the area, and it is a dead end so cars have got to go in and out the same way.
"There’s a care facility at the top of the road, I think it’s a day care facility, and also there’s numerous blocks of flats around the loop that come in and out the same way, it’s going to be a busy road.
“There was substantial parking when we were there during the day but at night and at the weekends it must be pretty horses, I just think that no car access with a shop there with no parking access is totally wrong.
"We’re not doing a disadvantage to the local people by rejecting this because there are shop facilities within walking distance as well. I’m of the view that this is totally inappropriate.”
The proposals were recommended by planning officers and a range of surveys were taken out which deemed the plans as acceptable.
The planning officers used a national database to determine the traffic flow to the shop, and the proposed site is about half the size of the smallest shop currently on the database – and it was found that less than ten vehicles would be arriving in the busiest hour.
Despite these findings, and based on elected members’ experience at the site visit, the plans were refused.
* Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Head on over and give us a like and share!
