Author Archive | David Adams

HCWG welcomed the decision of Argyll and Bute Council to refuse retrospective planning permission on 18 July 2014 for a 1.8 metre high wooden fence on to Cumberland Avenue. The Council’s refusal notice described the fence as “an alien and formal boundary treatment which undermines the previously attractive context of the street merging with the open space (and which) also undermines the Council’s objectives to seek to restore the amenity value of the site.”

HCWG had consistently sought the removal of this fence ever since it was erected by Margery Osborne and Thomas Paterson without any permission in October 2012. Some 17 months later, the owners were finally persuaded to apply for retrospective planning permission by the threat of Council enforcement action. Within days of the planning refusal in July 2014, the landowners reduced the height of the fence to 1 metre to comply with permitted development rights. This re-opens the Cumberland Avenue site to public view from the street and makes it even more important to remove the remnants of logs and debris from the 2011 felling.

For more information, see the report at:
Lochside Press: Fence at Cumberland Avenue should go, say planners

HCWG had long campaigned against the unlawful storage of building materials on the land at Cumberland Avenue and thus much welcomed Argyll and Bute Council’s decision in March 2014 to serve an enforcement notice on landowners Margery Osborne and Thomas Paterson requiring the removal of the materials.

Nevertheless, as the landowners appealed to Scottish Government against the enforcement notice, the building materials were not finally removed until 2 June 2014, when a Scottish Government Reporter visited the site. The Reporter subsequently dismissed the landowners’ appeal as well as their claim for expenses against Argyll and Bute Council.

You can download details of the appeal decisions on the Scottish Government website here.

On 18 December 2013, in the absence of appropriate action by landowners, Margery Osborne and Thomas Paterson, Argyll and Bute Council’s Planning, Protective Services and Licensing Committee gave authorisation for the replanting of 28 trees at Cumberland Avenue to be undertaken directly by the Council, with the cost to be subsequently recovered from the landowners. HCWG welcomed this clear determination by the planning authority to ensure full compliance with the official Tree Replacement Notice.

No trees had been replanted at Cumberland Avenue by the required deadline of 15 November 2013 specified in the official Tree Replacement Notice. HCWG therefore wrote to Councillor Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, and Councillor David Kinniburgh, Chair of the Planning, Protective Services and Licensing, requesting that the Council take all necessary steps to ensure that there was no further delay in compliance with the Tree Replacement Notice. Swift initial replies were received from both councillors confirming that planning officers would investigate the landowners’ failure to observe the Tree Replacement Notice and report to the appropriate Council committee.

For more information, see the reports at:
For Argyll: Helensburgh group calls for Argyll and Bute Council to take action against defiant developers
Lochside Press: Call for action over felled trees – 30 months on

HCWG learnt with much disappointment that its funding application for £241,000 submitted to the Armed Forces Community Covenant Fund in April had been turned down, even though the application was described as “excellent” by the Board. It became apparent that unwillingness of landowners even to discuss the transfer of the land to HCWG was the principal reason why this important source of Government funding had not been secured for Helensburgh. However, in communicating its decision to HCWG, the Board wrote that “once the issues of ownership of the land and the transfer thereto to your Community Woods Group is firm in this respect, they would be happy to accept a resubmission of your application.”