Our Consultation with you
We have devised this Virtual Online Exhibition as our means of public engagement and we want to hear your views to help inform our thoughts and ideas for our proposed housing development prior to the submission of our application for Full Planning Permission to Fife Council, which we anticipate will most likely be in June 2022.
In compliance with the current guidance, and as we did for our first consultation event, we are undertaking this online consultation with the opportunity for you not only to access the information and provide your comments by way of a feedback form (available to download using the link on the Have Your Say page), but we are also providing the opportunity again for you to participate in 2 live and interactive sessions on the 24th May (the first day of this Second Consultation being launched - see next page) with our development team to try and re-create the public exhibition event.
The information for this Second Virtual Online Exhibition will be accessible for viewing for 3 weeks until Tuesday 14th June 2022 when the consultation period will close.
Comments on the proposals are invited by completing and submitting a Feedback Form by email, either by the close of the consultation period (Tuesday 14th June 2022) or by Friday 17th June 2022 at the latest, unless there are good reasons for requiring additional time.
FEEDBACK FROM THE FIRST CONSULTATION EVENT
We were pleased with the level of the response to our first consultation exercise, particularly during the Live and Interactive Events held over 2 sessions on 19th April 2022. However, to date, only 4 feedback forms have been received, 2 of which are in support of our proposals.
It was apparent that the issues that were important to those who raised concerns at the initial stage related to those matters as summarised below:-
- The principle of housing on the site and the numbers of houses proposed.
- The pressure that additional housing and increased population would have on the services, amenities and community infrastructure in Crossgates – especially the Medical Practice and the Primary School.
- The public sewerage system would be unable to cope with more housing.
- The existing road network is unable to cope with additional housing, particularly Manse Road.
- Boundary treatment along John Wood Place.
- Potential overlooking from new housing of existing residential properties to south of the site.
The feedback received from the first event is appreciated. Where required, individual responses were issued to those who raised queries and all respondents were invited to complete feedback forms and submit them for consideration as part of the consultation process. No formal response will be provided to the feedback at this time – this will be provided in the PAC Report which is a necessary document to support any future planning application when submitted to Fife Council.
However, it is of relevance to re-state that the site in question is allocated for housing in Fife Council’s adopted LDP with an estimated capacity of 200 houses. The proposals are consistent with that zoning.
In response to the concerns about the Primary School and Medical Practice being at full capacity and pressures on other infrastructure, these are matters that are the subject of on-going discussions with Fife Council Officials and other relevant stakeholders (such as Scottish Water). No definitive conclusions have been reached yet and so no further comments can be provided at this time.
While there was a minimum level of comments on the specific housing layout, the comments received have nevertheless been useful. In that regard, the exercise has established that land outwith the site adjacent to the Church is in private ownership. A potential path connection to this land from the proposed development as shown on the initial layout will be reviewed and likely removed from the proposal going forward.
Feedback was also received on matters such as landscaping and boundary treatments so these areas will be reviewed prior to submission of our final planning application.
In terms of potential overlooking queries, all houses have been positioned in a way that the Council’s guidelines will be met in full, either due to the orientation of houses being gable end on to existing houses, or the 18 metre window to window distances between new and existing houses being respected.
