Printed minutes
Argyll and Bute Council · 8 October 2025
Back to Argyll and Bute Local Review Body — 8 October 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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MINUTES of MEETING of ARGYLL AND BUTE LOCAL REVIEW BODY held in MEETING ROOM 1, MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS, ALBANY STREET, OBAN on WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2025 Present: Councillor Gordon Blair (Chair) Councillor Jan Brown Councillor Fiona Howard Attending: Iain Jackson, Governance, Risk and Safety Manager (Adviser) Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes) Graham MacEachen, Applicant Fiona Scott, Planning Officer 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 EAST OF ELDERSLIE, OBAN, ARGYLL, PA34 4SB (REF: 25/0008/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 Mr Jackson, who would provide procedural advice if required. Referring to the site inspection held prior to this meeting (note of site inspection attached as Appendix A to this Minute), he 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 Brown advised that she thought the site inspection had been really helpful. She said it was good to see what it looked like and she noted that it was on the hill side rather than the field below it. She advised that she felt that the LRB had to be mindful of SEPA’s holding objection. Councillor Howard agreed that she thought the LRB could not ignore SEPA and that they were obliged to take them into account in the determination of this application. She advised that the solution would be to get the survey that was required carried out and submitted. Councillor Blair said that the LRB had 3 options they could consider as follows: 1. Refuse the application based on the objection from SEPA and the recommendation from the Planners based on the Applicant’s refusal to submit information requested by SEPA to allow them to fully consider the flooding issues at the site. 2. Give the Applicant the opportunity to provide the evidence requested by SEPA in their correspondence dated 11 July 2024 (pages 51 to 53), 16 October 2024 (pages 55 to 57) and 22 April 2025 (pages 59 to 61) in the pack for the first calling, for their
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consideration and a further report from the Planners with, either conditions and reasons that would be attached to an approval of the development by the LRB or confirmation that they (the Planners) are maintaining their position that the application should be refused in terms of NPF4 Policy 22 and LDP2 Policy 55. 3. Ask the Planners for conditions/reasons that might allow the LRB to approve the application, as it has been submitted but you would need a competent motion to disregard to objection by SEPA and also refer the matter to the Scottish Ministers. He advised that he was keen to give the Applicant the extra time to submit the information required by SEPA. He said he did not think the LRB could go against the planning policies and procedures that were currently in place. He noted that the goal posts had changed since the original application was submitted and pointed out that the LRB had to consider the planning policies that were relevant at this time. He proposed that the Applicant be given the opportunity to submit the information required by SEPA and he sought advice from Mr Jackson on what the process and timescales would be for this to be taken forward. Mr Jackson advised that normally parties were given 14 days to submit further written information with a further 14 days given to all other interested parties to comment on this further information if they wished. In this case he suggested that the Applicant be given 14 days to either submit the further information required or confirm that an extension of time was required. SEPA should be given 14 days to provide a response to the further information submitted and Planning should be given a further 14 days to comment on the response from SEPA, confirming whether it was their view that the application should be approved or refused based on the findings by SEPA, and to provide appropriate conditions and reasons in the event the LRB were minded to approve the application. All interested parties would then have 14 days to comment on all the submissions made before these were all brought back to the LRB for further consideration. Decision The Members of the LRB agreed: 1. To request from the Applicant the evidence requested by SEPA as set out in their letters dated 11 July 2024, 16 October 2024 and 22 April 2025. 2. To give the Applicant 14 days to either submit this evidence or request an extension to the timescale for submitting the information, with an indication of how much extra time would be required. 3. To request SEPA to comment on the further information received from the Applicant within 14 days following the deadline for receipt of the further information from the Applicant. 4. To request the Planning Officer to comment on the response from SEPA and submit appropriate conditions and reasons in the event the LRB were minded to approve the application. This information to be provided within 14 days following the deadline for receipt of comments from SEPA.
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5. To note that all interested parties would be given a further 14 days to comment on all the further information submitted before the LRB met again to continue consideration of the case.
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Appendix A ARGYLL AND BUTE LOCAL REVIEW BODY NOTE OF MEETING OF SITE INSPECTION RE CASE 25/0008/LRB LAND SOUTH EAST OF ELDERSLIE, OBAN WEDNESDAY 8 OCTOBER 2025 In attendance Councillor Gordon Blair, Argyll and Bute LRB (Chair) Councillor Jan Brown, Argyll and Bute LRB Councillor Fiona Howard, Argyll and Bute LRB Fiona Scott, Planning Officer Graham MacEachen, Applicant Iain Jackson, Governance, Risk and Safety Manager (Adviser Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes) The Argyll and Bute Local Review Body (LRB) agreed on 8 September 2025 to conduct an accompanied site inspection. The purpose of the site inspection was to view the layout and location of the site in order to determine what the flooding issues were. The Local Review Body convened at 11.00 am on 8 October 2025 at Land South East of Elderslie, Oban. The Chair welcomed everyone to the site inspection and introductions were made. The Chair welcomed all attendees and explained the procedure for the site inspection. The following observations were made and points noted: 1. Location of site and public footpath. 2. Location of the proposed dwellinghouses which would each have a separate access. 3. That this was a technical refusal on flood grounds – SEPA require to be satisfied that the development would not be subject to flood risk or exacerbate flood risk elsewhere. 4. Location of the water course down the eastern boundary and the culverts. 5. Topographic ground level information and culvert details are required by SEPA. 6. Applicant has not submitted this information due to costs involved. 7. Since the current planning permission in principle has lapsed SEPA maps have changed, and national and local planning policies have been updated with more emphasis now on flood prevention. 8. Applicant confirmed no history of flooding on the site, including during recent Storm Amy. 9. Applicant confirmed that when the site is cleared of trees and shrubs a SUDs system would mitigate any potential flooding.
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10. JBA Consulting did not carry out a site inspection. They were satisfied with the information provided by Applicant – SEPA require more information. This concluded the site inspection.