Moray Council: Return on horizon of site visits for planning applications

Councillors dealing with planning applications across Moray may begin making on-site visits again from mid-August.

Visits to proposed development sites were stopped due to the pandemic, but questions are being asked about when they will start back up.

At a meeting yesterday of the planning committee, councillor Sonya Warren (Buckie, SNP) said: "I find that not having site visits is a big loss.

"Sometimes it’s a lot harder to judge a planning application without one."

The committee's chairman, cllr Donald Gatt (Keith and Cullen, Conservative), said he shared these concerns.

However, he added, that as the decision to suspend site visits was taken by the full council, it would require the same body to re-instate them.

Aileen Scott, the council's legal services manager, told yesterday's meeting that a report is expected to go before the full council after the summer recess.

She said: "It’s appreciated that members do prefer site visits, and that has always been our preference up to the pandemic.

"We have taken steps to make sure members have as much information as possible in front of them, and they have the opportunity to say if they have insufficient information.

"I don’t want people thinking decisions have been made without proper information being made available to members.

"As you say there is no substitute for a site visit, but that decision will be up to full council."

The first meeting after the summer break is expected to be held on August 10.

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