Merkinch flats plan will put 'pressure on the community'
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PLANS for almost 40 new riverside flats in Merkinch will put pressure on the primary school and lead to a worrying increase in traffic, the community council has warned.
Gael Force Marine’s proposals for 38 flats at Thornbush Quay just off Anderson Street are being recommended for approval when councillors meet to vote on them next week.
A final decision over the application, which was first lodged in 2010, has been deferred for the past four years after the Scottish Environment Protection Agency raised concerns over the risk from flooding.
But with the city’s flood-defence scheme, which will protect the site, nearing completion, the agency has now dropped its objection.
Recommending approval, council planners said: "Members will be aware that the length of time since the deferral in 2011 is unusual but it is a direct result of the ongoing flood-alleviation scheme.
"The design of the scheme has taken into account the potential for a residential development of this site and as a result the site is now considered suitable for development.
"In the intervening period a change to some policies has occurred but none that would alter the original recommendation to grant planning permission."
But the flats, which will be split into two separate blocks standing four and five-storeys tall, have proven controversial in the surrounding community.
When first lodged Merkinch Community Council raised concerns over the presence of dozens of extra cars on already busy roads.
Speaking yesterday, its chairwoman Dell McClurg warned that children living in the new flats would place an added strain on Merkinch Primary School, which is operating with several portable classrooms to meet demand.
"The knock-on effect of the flats is that they mean more children in a school that has already got two mobile units," she said.
"I am also very concerned about the traffic because so many flats will mean lots of extra cars. Anderson Street is already so busy.
"Thirty-eight flats means another 38 cars and what about the impact on the other services in the area? When the plans
last came up there were concerns about the impact on the community – is the community ready for another 38 flats? These are questions that we need to be asking.
"I know we are desperate for houses but if we are that desperate then why are they not dealing with the boarded up houses in Merkinch. There are two empty houses already in Craigton Avenue."
She also questioned plans to build such high blocks of flats when there are no plans for internal lifts for those with limited mobility.
Responding to earlier concerns about increased traffic Highland Council’s planners, in their report, said that speed surveys for Anderson Street
suggested there was no problem with speeding cars in the area and that, so long as the new
flats have an appropriately-sized access junction, there are no road safety concerns about the site.
They added that in the five years between January 2008 and December 2012 only one collision was reported in Anderson Street and no injuries.
