Flood risk set to be barrier to latest housing plan

Flood risk is set to be a barrier to the latest proposal for housing to the south of Kilmarnock.

A planning application by Clowes Scotland for 62 new houses on the site of the old Stoddard Carpet Factory off Barbadoes Road will be considered by East Ayrshire Council planning committee next week.

More than a quarter of the houses would be affordable homes.

The factory stood on the site until its closure in 2005, with the demolition of the site completed four years later.

The housing would be the second phase of work, sitting to the south of the houses built in the first phase.

The site is also flanked by a recycling facility, scrapyard and Scottish Gas Networks site as well as general industry.

A flood prevention berm is also built to the west and along the southern boundary of the proposed estate.

The site has been the subject of several planning applications over the last two decades.

A proposal for the erection almost 200 homes was refused in 2007, with an amended application approved in the same year. However, no legal agreement was subsequently finalised.

An application for 99 homes was submitted before being withdrawn in 2009.

An application for the now completed first phase, with 68 homes, was approved in 2011.

A report to councillors states: “These flood prevention works were undertaken in the late 1990s and help protect the application site and earlier Phase 1 houses from the Kilmarnock Water.”

The application proposes that 17 of the proposed houses would be three and four bedroom affordable homes.

The remainder would be split between 20 three-bedroom homes and 19 four bedroom homes.

The application includes play areas throughout the estate, with two play areas located on the west side of the site, one linking to the existing play area in the earlier phase of housing, and the other located south of this, both overlooked by housing.

Open space, including the play areas and amenity areas would form just under half of the developable land at the site.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is the main objector, stating the proposed development ‘may put people or property at risk of flooding’.

They add there needs to be safe access to higher ground, point out that the raising of land would still mean the development could be an ‘island’ of development that could be inaccessible should flooding affect the area.

It was also pointed out that the entire site is at flood risk. The first phase had been built prior to changes that significantly increased the flood risk of the area.

A number of other objections were also submitted covering issues such as the placement of site cabins/facilities near to existing houses, traffic, safety, impact on wildlife, air quality and impact on school capacity.

Planning officers have recommended refusal of the application, citing the fact that the land is not allocated for housing in the local development plan, is not for the delivery of a development of affordable homes as part of a council programme, is in a flood risk area, may put people and property at risk of flooding by land raising to create an ‘island development’, and does not address the impact of climate change on flood risk.

The application will be considered on Friday, October 25.