issue 39 tullibody, cambus and glenochil sites and proposals

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Contents Page - Issue 39 - Tullibody, Cambus and Glenochil Sites and Proposals

1. Schedule 4

2. Representations

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057a, CLDP057b)

Scottish Government (CLDP070a) Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076)

3. Supporting Documents

CD030 Clackmannanshire Adopted Local Plan (December 2004) CD034 Clackmannanshire Proposed Local Development Plan

(November 2013) CD064 Cambus Station Park and Ride, Feasibility Study, Final

Report, (Jacobs), October 2007 SD26 Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076) - Supporting

Statement [attached]

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Issue 39 Tullibody, Cambus and Glenochil Sites and Proposals

Development Plan reference:

M04 - Alloa Road, Tullibody (Page 128) S06 - Tullibody Civic Centre (Page 129) T07 - Cambus Park and Ride (Page 129)

Reporter:

Body or person(s) submitting a representation raising the issue (including reference number):

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057a, CLDP057b) Scottish Government (CLDP070a) Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076)

Provision of the development plan to which the issue relates: Planning Authoritys summary of the representation(s):

M04 - Alloa Road, Tullibody

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057b) The current access road into this site should be maintained and continue to be available for amenity access by residential properties next to the plot. The road is required for properties adjacent to the site to present waste bins for uplift on Alloa Road and for vehicular access. Any new build considerations for this site should not be to the detriment of the current residential properties neighbouring it in terms of access and amenity.

S06 - Tullibody Civic Centre

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057a) It would be inappropriate to offer this site for development. The site is currently used for car parking for the Civic Centre, Playing Fields and Abercromby School. The loss of this car parking space would create additional on street parking on Abercromby Place which is already a very busy route. Given the growing population and requirement for community and leisure facilities it would be a retrograde step to reduce the off street parking currently available at this location.

T07 - Cambus Park and Ride

Scottish Government (CLDP070a) Whilst it is recognised that there are no firm proposals for this station in the plan, it should be recognised that the Scottish Ministers have no current plans for a station at this location. As such, any reference to the station should remain aspirational and no funding commitment should be assumed. The Scottish Government does not require land to be retained in the Plan for the provision of this, or other stations.

The responsibility to demonstrate the need for a new station will continue to lie

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with the relevant promoter, for example, Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships or developers.

Any proposal for a station would have to be shown to be an appropriate transport solution, through the completion of a properly complete STAG appraisal, which would need to consider any station in the context of alternative solutions that may be developed to address recognised transport issues.

It would also have to be shown to be a viable financial and technical solution, requiring the consideration of such factors as the capital costs of building a station and any associated infrastructure, the ongoing costs that may be associated with operating subsidies, the potential need for additional rolling stock and the impacts of stations on wider rail timetabling.

In terms of this particular proposal, it must also be recognised that this may have the potential to impact on the operation of level crossings that currently exist in the Council area. It is important that Clackmannanshire Council recognise this and discuss any proposals with the appropriate agency, whether associated with a new rail station or not. Network Rail should be contacted for their information and comment, before the Local Development Plan is adopted.

Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076) The Draft Designated Sites Plan on the Councils portal does not identify the land at Cambus as a station and park and ride yet the other accompanying plans do; and the LDP text document identifies the site as a transport opportunity site in Cambus. The Consultation Draft Forth 2 Plan shows the annotation T07 in a circle, yet no site boundary is identified, however, it is clear that the site is the largest of all transport proposals on the Consultation Draft Countryside Plan which accompanies the LDP documents. Clarity between the different documents as to the importance and significance of this designation would have been more helpful to the community engagement.

A boundary for the site, especially in the light of the 2007 Jacobs Cambus Station Park and Ride Feasibility Report (CD064) (a copy of which was provided to Mr Liddell by the Council), would have brought more transparency to the proposed allocation/designation of this land. As such the public are left with the uncertainty of the size of the site proposed, the position of the access point and what other land around the site will be removed from agricultural use. The Jacobs report also makes reference to other land being released for housing in this location yet this does not appear in the draft LDP (CD034). Clarity again is required in order that the public are able to provide relevant input on the significant issues that these proposals generate.

The proposal to designate this land as a station plus park and ride will necessitate the provision of a large roundabout close to existing residential properties. The significance of the impact on this roundabout upon the status quo will relate to landscape and visual impact.

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Other significant impacts relate to the function and operation of the site in terms of the volumes of vehicles accessing the park and ride and station car park on a daily basis at all hours of day and night. No assessment of this has been undertaken to date in order to quantify the noise, vibration and road safety implications.

The proposal will result in a loss of visual amenity and a large volume of hard surface on an area which is a ploughed field at present. This will be a dramatic change in character which will negatively impact on the landscape and the setting of Cambus. It would be prudent of the Council to undertake a landscape and visual appraisal in order to formally record and assess this impact before taking this further.

The site selection process is questioned, it would be prudent of the Council to reveal this assessment and quantify it in the interests of transparency and good planning. The Jacob's report (CD064) referred to above does not identify alternative sites as it should nor score the adequacy or otherwise of all potential sites along the rail route which could facilitate this development. We require the Council to undertake a comparative analysis of suitable sites before committing to this one in the plan rather than purely adopting this site as its the only one thats been considered. Jacob's highlights an alternative location at Alloa for the park and ride.

Reference is made in the report (CD064) to the site being suitable given the volume of development in Cambus/Tullibody yet when we examine the draft LDP (CD034) there is only one proposed housing allocation (H25) in Tullibody which is for 6 units. How is the proposal therefore to be serviced/justified by way of the small scale nature of the existing population without having to market the proposal to a wider catchment area, thus resulting in increased vehicle journeys to the site and in turn increased impacts on existing residents?

The implications of effectively increasing the settlement envelope to accommodate this proposal are that it would result in a change in nature of the area. An area of greenbelt would be built upon resulting in increased pressure to develop other areas of the greenbelt in this location which will in time result in further expansion of the settlement envelope in this direction.

Before committing to this opportunity/proposal the Council will require to adequately assess the transport implications and impacts. A Traffic Impact Assessment should therefore be undertaken.

The Jacobs report (CD064) states that there has been no assessment of the general junction capacity (paragraph 2.3.1). Regarding speed limits on this stretch of road, it is difficult to think about traffic impact without thinking about these. The speed should be reduced to 30mph if this proposal goes ahead. The design of the road and visibility require to be assessed. In the past 12 months there have been so many accidents on this stretch of road that the question of road safety must be raised and examined by the Council before designating this site. These elements should be assessed as part of the site

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selection criteria.

The benefits of the proposal to Cambus are not identified, residents require to know these.

The trains slowing down and stopping then starting up again will result in additional and different noise impacts form those experienced at present. Litter will be generated by so many people being at the site, a loss of privacy from people using driveways as shortcuts, a loss of value will be experienced by existing property owners. The impact of high level street lighting potentially being introduced onto the land in order to facilitate this development is also an impact that requires to be adequately assessed.

This objection therefore stands in relation to the manner in which the use and allocation of the site as a potential park and ride and station has been arrived at and the way this is expressed unclearly in the plan documents. The resultant impacts in terms of visual, landscape, traffic, noise, litter and lighting which will be experienced by residents have not been assessed nor alternatives examined adequately.

Modifications sought by those submitting representations:

M04 - Alloa Road, Tullibody

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057b) Current access road into the site should be maintained and continue to be available for amenity access by residential properties.

S06 - Tullibody Civic Centre

Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council (CLDP057a) Should not be developed as parking spaces would be lost.


Scottish Government (CLDP070a) Rail station proposal at Cambus - any reference to the station should remain aspirational and no funding commitment should be assumed. It should be recognised that the Scottish Ministers have no current plans for a station at this location.

Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076) Requests removal of reference to Opportunity T07 and annotation on plans in relation to Cambus Station and Park and Ride.

Summary of responses (including reasons) by Planning Authority:

M04 - Alloa Road, Tullibody and S06 - Tullibody Civic Centre

In relation to Tullibody, Cambus & Glenochil Community Council's representations (CLDP057b and CLDP057a), the proposals for site M04

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identify access as being from Alloa Road. Internal layout and the safeguarding of accesses to individual properties neighbouring the site would be considered at the detailed design stage. At site S06, there is sufficient land around the current Tullibody Civic Centre to allow for additional parking which may be required as a result of further services being located there either through extensions or re-use of existing space within the Centre. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.


Scottish Government (CLDP070a) It was considered that by identifying this as an opportunity rather than a proposal, and stating in the text that the opportunity involved safeguarding the land, rather than delivering the rail halt and car park, that the aspirational nature of the opportunity was made clear. Should further clarity be required through additional wording, the Reporter may be minded to request the addition of further detail.

Mr T Liddell/McIntosh Planning Ltd. (CLDP076) Site T07 is identified in the Proposed Local Development Plan (CD034) as a circle, which denotes Proposals and Opportunities "where the precise boundaries or location are not yet known" and are therefore indicative. The size of the circles on the different scales of maps varies to assist legibility and does not represent the size of the opportunity site. Due to a technical problem, these indicative sites did not show up on the map uploaded to the portal as they were point files rather than shape files. This was not brought to our attention until this submission was received, however this is likely to be due to the fact that the maps were initially uploaded to the Council's website and through Citizen Space, where these technical problems did not occur and the plans were identical to the printed copies. It was only later in the consultation process that the OLDP module was able to be uploaded. Mr Liddell was also alerted to the opportunity as a neighbour. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

The Jacob's report (CD064) was not referred to, and the site boundary was not taken from that report as this was a feasibility report from October 2007 and there is no certainty that the boundaries would remain the same should the opportunity be progressed. The figures in the report would all be likely to require to be updated, including passenger numbers (as the train service is now operating real data would be available rather than just the projections available in 2007), traffic flows and construction costs. It is unclear where the reference to land for housing in this vicinity in the Jacob's report came from, although it is likely that, at the time of the report a large number of houses were still to be constructed as part of the Muirside development in Tullibody, which is now complete. No additional housing at this location is promoted or supported by the development plan. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

Although limited weight should be given to the Jacob's report (CD064), the indicative layouts included within it show the construction of a roundabout some distance from the existing houses, and a significant 'buffer' area between the car park and the housing to the west. No changes are therefore

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sought to the LDP.

No traffic counts were reviewed as part of the study (CD064) which states "No assessment of generated traffic or junction capacity has been undertaken. It is recommended that a transport impact assessment is carried out on the adjacent junctions which lie along the A907 to determine any impact of traffic generated by the new Cambus Station.". This detailed work would be carried out as part of any future progress in delivering the rail halt. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

In terms of landscape and visual impact, it is accepted that there would be some impact from development in this location, although no tall structures are proposed and landscaping would be incorporated into any design to minimise impact. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

A site for a rail halt at Cambus is identified in the Clackmannanshire Adopted Local Plan (December 2004) (CD030), although this has proved to be technically undeliverable because of recent developments. Additionally the LDP opportunity has been identified as it is at a point on the route between Stirling and Alloa where there is a passing loop. There are no other suitable locations with such a loop. The Jacob's report (CD064) did consider increasing the capacity of the parking at Alloa Station as an option and this has been included as a Proposal in the LDP. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

At the time of the report (CD064) (2007) a significant number of houses were still to be constructed as part of the Muirside development in Tullibody and the Middletonkerse development in Menstrie. These are now complete, or almost complete. A park and ride at this location would be likely to attract people who would previously have driven to Stirling or Alloa stations, or carried out their whole journey by car, therefore there is likely to be an overall reduction in car journeys/mileage. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

This is technically the only area where a new station could be provided due to the existence of as passing loop. It would therefore not set a precedent and the land surrounding the development would remain greenbelt. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

Further studies would be undertaken if it was decided to progress with this opportunity. In the meantime it was considered appropriate, and good Planning, to identify the opportunity through the LDP (CD034) to allow debate and comment on the principle. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

The existing speed limit at the proposed roundabout location in the Jacob's report (CD064) is 60mph. In the interest of safety for approaches to the new roundabout and associated pedestrian crossing points, the report (CD064) recommended that the adjacent existing 40mph speed limit is extended eastwards beyond the roundabout. The roundabout would also act as a traffic calming measure for high speed vehicles approaching Cambus. This detailed

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work would be carried out as part of any future progress in delivering the rail halt. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

The opportunity would benefit the residents of Cambus by providing them with easier access to public transport and would also benefit residents in the surrounding settlements in the same way. It would also help to reduce car trips and journey lengths by car, relieve congestion in Alloa and Stirling centres and make a positive contribution to sustainable travel. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

While the experience of those living close to the station may be changed by the change in noise of decelerating and accelerating trains, the properties are no closer to the station than those at Alloa Station. It is therefore unlikely that there would be significant noise issues which could not be overcome. Future electrification of the line would also lead to cleaner and quieter trains. Litter, privacy from people taking routes through private land and perceived loss of value are not planning considerations. Pedestrian routes to any rail halt would be considered in detail at the design stage along with any necessary pedestrian road crossings. The impact of street lighting would also be considered at the design stage to minimise impact on existing properties. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

The principle of a rail halt at Cambus has already been established through the Clackmannanshire Adopted Local Plan (December 2004) (CD030), although that was at a slightly different location. There are no suitable alternative sites which would meet the aims of providing a park and ride facility. No further certainty in the opportunity can be given until further work is done, but it is considered good Planning to highlight the possibility of a rail halt at this location as an aspiration of the Council. Detailed concerns will be addressed at the detailed design/planning application stage should the opportunity proceed. No changes are therefore sought to the LDP.

Reporters conclusions:

Reporters recommendations: