Falkirk Council: Dispute over plans to build houses on former grazing land in Denny over claims application was 'lost'

Steven Russell ran a riding school at Home Farm, off Drove Loan, for almost 30 years until deciding to retire from that business in 2014. He and his wife Ann now run The Courtyard Coffee Shop and Gift Shop on the site.

Eight years ago, he submitted a planning application to demolish the existing stables and develop the land for housing which was granted by the local authority.

However, four years later when he made another application to allow him to build a further three houses on the remaining 0.6 acres of land that had previously been used for grazing it was turned down.

The application was refused on the grounds that the development was contrary to the Falkirk Local Development Plan’s policies on Countryside, Housing in the Countryside, Development in the Countryside and Greenbelt.

The report also stated that the proposal was contrary to the terms of the National Roads Development Guide as it represented a pedestrian and road safety hazard due to “increased traffic which would be generated on an existing private access road of restricted width and alignment which does not benefit from street lighting or footpath provision”.

Mr Russell claims members of the committee and subsequently the Scottish Reporter who heard his appeal were given misleading information.

He said: “The report stated ‘There does not appear to be any planning application history for this site, which would change the use of land from agriculture to recreational or commercial grazing land. The application history of the wider area does grant planning permission for the previous riding school, on land adjacent to this site however the red line boundaries of the riding school and stables applications do not extend to the area of land which is now the subject of this application. Therefore the grazing use was unauthorised’.

"We were granted permission for the riding school and grazing in 1983 but the council have since admitted that they have lost the original application and therefore are unable to prove that.”He added that he had paid in excess of £40,000 in commercial rates for the land in question and, as a brownfield site, it should be considered for housing.Mr Russell added: “I have dealt with planning for over 40 years and can accept planning being granted or refused but what I want is an admission that a precedent was previously set with this land.”

He is calling on the local authority to look again at his application.

A spokesperson for Falkirk Council said: “Concerns raised by Mr Russell in relation to the handling of his planning application have been the subject of an investigation under the Council’s complaints procedure. Our investigation concluded there to be no matters arising that warranted further investigation and his complaint was not upheld.

“Mr Russell subsequently took up this matter with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman who have concluded that following their review of his complaint they have decided to not take any further action in this regard.”