by Leanna MacLarty

Councillors have chosen the sites where more than 1,000 new homes will be built in the Mearns. Former airbase Edzell Woods will grow by 300 households in the next 12 years in an effort to improve ailing infrastructure.

Laurencekirk is also set to expand by nearly 900 households after a meeting of Kincardine and Mearns area committee yesterday. Members were deciding which Mearns villages should be extended as part of the upcoming local development plan. Inverbervie could receive the third-largest development, with space for 245 houses and a business park approved at the south of the village.

Planning policy team leader Piers Blaxter told members that developers would pay a high price for building at Laurencekirk. He said they will be forced to pay “millions” to Network Rail for the rights to erect a bridge over the railway, and told to put forward contributions towards a new primary and an enlargement of the planned replacement secondary school. The developer will also be asked to fund a grade-separated junction at the north end of the town. Mr Blaxter added: “I have some concern about the development industry paying for upgrades which resolve an existing problem. “Developer contributions are there to resolve the problems created by the development rather than historical problems.” Transport Scotland is unlikely to change its position and any alteration would have to come from “a political change of mind”, he said. It is hoped the large-scale expansion of Edzell will help fund much-needed improvements to services, all privately owned by residents.

Mearns councillor George Carr said there were “major infrastructure problems” facing residents at Edzell Woods which need addressing “urgently”. Residents face a £1million bill to replace the sewage treatment plant, but an expansion of more than 50 homes means Scottish Water should instal it free of charge.

Councillors heard the airbase is being considered by Historic Scotland as a potential listed site and, if it does become listed, the heritage agency would raise “substantial objection” to any new development. Members also approved plans for 80 new houses at Auchenblae. George Carr asked for any development to include an upgrade of Golf Road in the north of the village – a “big concern”.

Mearns villages Marykirk, Drumlithie and Fettercairn were allocated an extra 30 houses each. Roadside of Kinneff will also receive 30 new properties, as well as a site for employment use.

Gourdon will have 30 new homes and a seven-acre extension to the existing business park. Johnshaven, Arbuthnott, Benholm and Catterline are among the settlements which were not allocated housing. They are likely to remain untouched in the next 12 years.

This post is reposted from The Press and Journal.