Housing plan at Bearsden Golf Club land kicked into the rough

Councillors refused to grant planning permission for Bearsden Golf Club to extend its boundaries, which has also resulted in delays for a proposed housing development.

The planning board of East Dunbartonshire Council discussed the plans during a virtual planning meeting held on Tuesday, June 23.

The proposals attracted a significant amount of public interest, with the council receiving a total of 421 responses to the golf course extension, including 123 objections and 291 letters of support.

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Grounds for objection included concerns that the extension would have a negative effect on the Antonine Wall and the Roman fort at Castlehill, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, increased traffic, a lack of benefit to the local community, plentiful golf courses already existing locally, ecological harm, flooding and golf balls being struck towards housing.

Supporters of the development, meanwhile, argued that the development would benefit residents of Golf View with flooding alleviation, reduced numbers of golf balls landing in people’s gardens, that no historic sites would be harmed.

They also argued the expansion would attract investment in the club, that the development would maintain a green belt boundary, that the layout had been altered to avoid conflict with the ancient fortifications,  that the club would tidy up the area around the Antonine Wall as a gesture of goodwill and that the development would promote biodiversity through careful land management.

Although the council’s planning officers recommended approving the application subject to a range of conditions including further archaeological work to be carried out before any development work, council co-leader Vaughan Moody proposed to refuse permission on the grounds that the development would result in remodelling of a well-used local footpath network and offered inadequate protection to a world-renowned site of historic interest.

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This was accepted as an amendment and councillors voted 12 to six in favour of 
refusal.

A related planning application for the construction of 67 houses on an area of the golf course, which has been allocated for housing under the Local Plan, was continued to allow for additional consultation with the national sports agency Sportscotland.

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