Printed minutes
Argyll and Bute Council · 13 October 2025
Back to Argyll and Bute Local Review Body — 13 October 2025 and its agenda
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MINUTES of MEETING of ARGYLL AND BUTE LOCAL REVIEW BODY held BY MICROSOFT TEAMS on MONDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2025 Present: Councillor Gordon Blair (Chair) Councillor John Armour Councillor Peter Wallace Attending: Emma Ledsom, Senior Solicitor (Adviser) Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes) Michael Hyde, Applicant’s Agent Matt Aitchison, Applicant Lisa Bradbury, Applicant 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE There were no apologies for absence. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest. 3. CONSIDER NOTICE OF REVIEW REQUEST: LAND SOUTH OF FERNBANK, RAHANE (REF: 25/0006/LRB) The Chair, Councillor Gordon Blair, welcomed everyone to the meeting. He explained that no person present would be entitled to speak other than the Members of the Local Review Body (LRB) and Ms Ledsom, who would provide procedural advice if required. He referred to the previous meeting held on 25 August 2025 when it was agreed to request further written information from the Roads Officer. This information was contained within the Agenda pack for today’s meeting along with comments from the Applicant. The Chair advised that his first task would be to establish if the Members of the LRB felt that they had sufficient information before them to come to a decision on the Review. Councillor Armour advised that he was not sure if the LRB had much more information than they had at the previous meeting and that he felt that there wasn’t anything they had not already known when the LRB last met. Councillor Wallace agreed with Councillor Armour and commented that he was disappointed with the response received from the Roads Officer and he did not feel that it had moved the process forward. Councillor Blair advised that he was grateful for the response the Roads Officer had provided for the first meeting. He then referred to the suggested reduced visibility splays put forward by the Applicant in their response to the further written information provided by the Roads Officer for this meeting (contained within page 9 of the Agenda pack for today’s meeting) and queried whether the Applicant had control of the land where the visibility splays would be required or if they had reached an agreement with neighbours. Councillor Blair said he would be quite happy to support the application based on the reduced visibility splays, as suggested by the Applicant. He proposed requesting from the Planning Officer, appropriate conditions and reasons which take account of road safety in
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the event Members were minded to grant planning permission as a minor departure from policy to allow for the reduced visibility splays suggested by the Applicant. He said that he would like confirmation from Planning on whether a Section 75 Agreement would be required in the event the Applicant did not have control over the land to achieve these reduced visibility splays. Councillors Armour and Wallace supported this proposal and the Members of the LRB agreed that a site visit would not be required. Ms Ledsom confirmed the timescales for submitting this further information and it was noted that all interested parties would have the opportunity to comment on this further written information before it came back to the Members of the LRB for consideration. Decision The Argyll and Bute LRB agreed to request the following further written information from the Planning Officer: • Appropriate conditions and reasons taking account of road safety in the event Members were minded to grant planning permission as a minor departure from policy to allow for reduced visibility splays to the south of the proposed new access measuring 75 x 2 x 1.05 metres and to the north of the proposed new access measuring 40 x 2 x 1.05 metres. • Confirmation as to whether the Applicant has control of the land to achieve these reduced visibility splays, and, if not, confirmation on whether a Section 75 Legal Agreement would be required to achieve these reduced visibility splays. (Reference: Further Written Information from Roads Officer and Comments from the Applicant, submitted)