Controversial Plockton plans set to get green light
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CONTROVERSIAL proposals to give a business in Plockton retrospective permission to operate as a cafe go before Highland Council next week.
Dozens of residents have objected to the plan by Baoighill Aoigheachd Ltd at 12 Harbour Street, which has also drawn strong criticism from Plockton and District Community Council and the Plockton Hall Committee.
Permission was given in 2010 for the ground floor to be used as a shop, with the upstairs acting as a home for staff running the business below.
But Highland Council planners said that a series of reports were lodged between October last year and this June, claiming it was in breach of planning conditions by operating a cafe from the ground floor and Airbnb holiday rental space upstairs.
Baoighill Aoigheachd has now lodged a change of use application which, if approved, will enable it to continue operating the restaurant and holiday let facilities.
Slating the proposals, a formal objection by the community council said: "The applicant (although the name of the applications is different – it is the same applicant) has a previous permission for development of the same property which generated considerable local objection.
"As a result, planning permission was granted with a series of carefully considered constraints to limit the impact of the development on nearby residential properties.
"The applicant has since operated the business and has contravened a number of these planning constraints.
"The current application seeks to directly overturn several of the constraints that currently apply. Given that these constraints were designed to limit the impact on residential properties, it follows that their removal will increase the impact on residential properties."
Plockton Hall, meanwhile, pointed out limited local parking at the cafe. They said: "There is no provision for parking and we will not allow the hall car park or the layby beside the hall to be used.
"This area is the main turning area for lorries etc coming to the village and parking of cars there is already causing problems."
Those concerns were shared by a number of local residents too, who objected to the cafe’s location on an otherwise residential street, and that a precedent would be set if permission were granted.
But in a design statement on behalf of Baoighill Aoigheachd, ABIR Architects claimed that the cafe catered to people who were already visiting the village and that this meant there would not be an increase in vehicle movements.
"It is unlikely that there will be visitors generated exclusively by no. 12," they said. "The proposals will not increase traffic movements and as a result will not increase pressure on existing facilities."
And they argued that there were "precedents within the village with similar opening hours and usage including the Plockton Shores and on occasions the village hall (opposite no. 12)" which did not cause noise/disturbance.
The proposals are recommended for approval by council officers and will be decided by the north planning applications committee on Tuesday.
In their recommendation of approval, council planners, said: "While it is acknowledged that there are significant concerns within the community regarding the use of 12 Harbour Street, many of the comments relate to the manner in which the applicant has engaged with the planning process, are speculative to what could occur in the future or are not material considerations.
"In terms of individual and community amenity, the change of use to a cafe, operating within what are considered reasonable opening hours with a holiday letting above are not considered to pose a significantly greater threat to amenity than the current established uses of a retail outlet with manager’s flat above."
