Plans to build new homes on vacant land in Catrine have been rejected following an East Ayrshire Council (EAC) review.

Applicant Simon Ash was seeking permission to build the new homes on the land on Newton Street, opposite the entrance to Catrine cemetery.

Preliminary plans were originally submitted for the 10 homes in August 2023.

Previous submissions for 10 and 20 homes to be built on the site had been dismissed.

Past issues centred around the risk of flooding at the site.

Cumnock Chronicle: Plans for the development.Plans for the development. (Image: East Ayrshire Council)

The application was due to be decided by October 7, but when no decision had been reached by that date, Mr Ash submitted a request for a review "against the failure by an appointed officer of East Ayrshire Council to determine the planning application by the due date".

Mr Ash's request was referred to a 'local review body' (LRB) comprising four East Ayrshire councillors - Neill Watts (Conservative, Cumnock and New Cumnock), Elaine Stewart (Labour, Doon Valley), Graham Barton (SNP, Kilmarnock East and Hurlford), and Elaine Cowan (SNP, Kilmarnock North).

 

The LRB's members initially met on February 21 but decided they could not reach a decision without visiting the site for themselves.

That site visit took place on February 26, when the councillors were joined by three EAC officials, with the LRB meeting again later that day to consider Mr Ash's review request.

 

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Under the proposals a new walkway would have been created alongside the Bogend Burn, and a new sign welcoming drivers to Catrine erected next to the B713.

 

But the LRB decided that planning permission for the development should be refused.

A decision was reached that the application should be refused and dismissed.

The minutes of the LRB's meeting state that it was agreed the application did not comply with five policies in the Scottish Government's National Planning Framework, nor with six policies in East Ayrshire Council's local development plan.

The minutes also state: "Councillor Elaine Stewart moved to approve the application as it did comply with Policy 15 of the National Planning Framework 4 and Policy SS2 of the East Ayrshire Local Development Plan 2, and having failed to receive a seconder, asked that her dissent be recorded.

"As a consequence the Local Review Body determined that the application be refused and accordingly dismissed."