Plans for home on disused sawmill site in Earlston split opinion

Plans to transform the site of a disused sawmill near Earlston into a family home have divided opinion among members of Scottish Borders Council’s local review body.
The disused sawmill at Cowdenknowes near Earlston.The disused sawmill at Cowdenknowes near Earlston.
The disused sawmill at Cowdenknowes near Earlston.

Francis Peto’s application to build a three-bedroom house on that piece of disused land within his Cowdenknowes estate was rejected by the council’s planning and building standards committee in January.

A previous application for a house on the same site was approved in 2006, but a different design was later given the thumbs-down in 2018. Mr Peto’s latest application, reverting to the original design given the go-ahead 14 years ago, was refused this time around due to concerns that the site does not lie within an existing building group.

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Principal planning officer Craig Miller told councillors: “Both the applicant and the officer do now agree there is a building group present around Cowdenknowes House.

“There are at least three houses, including the mansion house, gardener’s cottage and lodge house, plus some holiday accommodation, creating a sense of place centred around Cowdenknowes House.

“The applicant is arguing the house is the same design as the one approved before, but there is a new local development plan to adhere to now.

“The previous consent is no longer supportable.”

An appeal against that ruling heard by the authority’s local review body over video-link on Monday remains undecided after half the councillors taking part feeling an outcome could not be reached without further details.

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Hawick and Denholm councillor Clair Ramage was among those pushing for more information to be gleaned by either a site visit or more photographs of the location.

“It’s a difficult one given planning consent has already been given for the same design, but planning policy has changed since then,” she said.

“There’s no housing that near to it, and I can’t in all honesty say it’s part of the building group, so it’s against policy.”

The committee’s chairman, Melrose and Leaderdale councillor Tom Miers, disagreed, arguing that the mill had a historic attachment to the estate.

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He said: “When we think about building groups we often have in our minds a definition that relies on proximity and lines of sight because the purpose of it is to avoid scattered and haphazard development.

“However, there are situations where a building group can be designed to be slightly scattered, such as in historic estates like this.

“If that is the case, the buildings in that group need to have a sense of identity with each other.

“For me this could be part of a group, but only if the design of the house was more sympathetic to that group.”

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A supporting statement from Galashiels-based Aitken Turnbull Architects pointed out that the plans for the two-storey home had garnered support from Earlston Community Council and had sparked no objections from statutory consultees.

However, with the committee split over whether the site lies within a building group and if its design is suitable should it be deemed to be so, it was agreed that more information, in the form of extra site photos and video footage taken by officers, be sought before a decision is made.

Mr Miers, using his casting vote to delay a decision on the appeal, added: “I think we need to continue this and add more visual information to back up what we have already.”