In the continuing issue of the unauthorised material dumped at the shoreside area of Easdale island known evocatively as the ‘Rush and Gush’, council planners met back in December 2012 with Eilean Eisdeal Limited, the charitable company which is the owner of the land in question.
The meeting with council planners
The meeting identified that the unauthorised material was of two types:
- waste materials – with a SEPA report that they have identified no hazardous waste on the island
- materials with a viable future for building
The current untidy mess is visible from the car park in the mainland village, Ellenabeich, across the narrow stretch of water from Easdale island – and from its pier head.
A matter of local upset is that the dumped building waste has been identified as the responsibility of locally based Highlands and Islands MSP, Mike Mackenzie.
Local authorities always seek to resolve such issues first by negotiation and retrospective application, as they have done here, hoping to avoid recourse to the Planning and Enforcement Charter.
This sets out how the planning service deals with and investigates alleged breaches of planning control. All cases are dealt with in exactly the same way, with each given a priority rating of 1, 2 or 3, depending on the scale of the breach. In the case of the Easdale dump, untidy land falls within Level 3.
At the December meeting, it was decided to treat the matter as being a case of unauthorised change of use of the land in question to store building materials; and that the unauthorised dumping of builders’ waste was an issue to be addressed separately.
Eilean Eisdeal was therefore advised to clear the waste material; and to apply retrospectively for planning permission for change of use of the site to store building materials.
The alternative option given was that it should clear the entire site of both dumped building waste and materials with a viable use in future building.
The company was informed that, should they decide to apply for the retrospective planning permission, they should present their justification of the request.
We reported in December that these options had been offered to Eilean Eisdeal and that there was a mid January deadline for their decision.
Eilean Eisdeal’s decision
While nothing has been done as yet and the deadline for action from Eilean Eisdeal has passed, we understand that the company has decided to apply for retrospective permission to store building materials on this visible site on the conservation island.
This means that, in parallel, they are obliged to clear the site of the waste materials dumped there.
The planning application is not yet complete but Eilean Eisdeal’s agent is working on it and the council planners expect to receive it imminently.
In the meantime, the council is keeping the situation under review.
