A Perth councillor has asked local authority staff to consider any bid to build more homes next to one of the city’s busiest roads extra cautiously should the need arise.
A paper presented to the council’s planning committee last week said Edinburgh-based Melford Developments would have to commission a number of studies if it applies to build up to 75 new houses on the old Hillside Hospital site off Dundee Road.
The report said the company would at the very least have to task consultants to prepare a transport assessment, a flood and drainage risk assessment and a sustainability assessment to support any planning application it files in the near future.
In addition it stated officers would expect a design and access statement and a construction method statement to be completed by the company along with a wildlife survey and a waste management and minimisation plan.
The council’s interim development quality manager Anne Condliffe also decided last Wednesday to add a requirement for Melford Developments to complete an air quality impact assessment to support any application too.
However Perth City Centre councillor Eric Drysdale insisted staff ought to consider any bid’s impact on congestion right across the city, and not just on the Dundee Road, as well as take other approved and proposed developments into account when they work out what kind of impact it would have.
His request came after the proposal was discussed at a public meeting the SNP councillor attended where a member of the public expressed concern about the current length of queues building up on Dundee Road.
The man told members of Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council (BGKCC) he decided to walk into town from the Barnhill Tollhouse one Sunday to see if he could beat the traffic and he said he did, although some attendees said there had been an accident further down the road the same day.
The man went on to speculate that if families moving into new properties built on the site of the former hospital each had two cars, this would add another 100 cars onto queues already forming along Dundee Road.
Chairman Terry Myers told the meeting he felt the former Hillside Hospital site was one of the worst places in Perth to try and develop considering the limited access to it and that the group would watch out for an application being filed.
