Hundreds of people have objected to plans to expand a car park at a Stewartry beauty spot.
And Colvend and Southwick Community Council say they are unable to support Gillespie Leisure Ltd’s plans for Sandyhills due to the “overwhelming strength of opposition” to the proposals.
The firm has lodged a bid to add nearly 200 parking bays at Sandyhills Bay Holiday Park.
The closing date for people to lodge their views has passed and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s online planning portal shows there have so far been 48 submissions on the proposal – all objecting.
However, the actual number of objections is nearly 10 times that number.
A council spokesman said: “The council’s planning service has received a considerable number of representations regarding the planning application at Sandyhills and these are all currently being processed by our business support team.
“The volume of representations involved, together with other work priorities on this small team, is such that unfortunately it will take longer than normal for all of these representations to be individually checked, indexed and redacted and published online.
“The case officer estimates that over 450 representations have been received – these were all objections and no letters of support were noted.”
The majority of the submissions that have been uploaded are from the Stewartry, with some from as far afield as the south of England and Holland.
Issues raised in the objections include the impact on the environment, loss of amenity, potential road safety problems and whether there is a need for so many spaces.
The community council recently held a consultation meeting on the proposals, attended by more than 100 people.
Minutes of the meeting claim “there was no community support put forward for this application”.
Biology experts expressed their concerns, with locals also worried about plans to introduce car parking barriers and a parking charge, which may stop people on low incomes accessing the beach.
The minutes conclude: “The community council recognised the overwhelming strength of opposition to the proposed development at Sandyhills Bay Holiday Park and is unable to support it.”
A design and access statement lodged with Gillespie Leisure Ltd’s application states the proposal “would increase formalised capacity by 196 car spaces with additional designated space for disabled parking, cycles and bus stop facility”.
There would be an automated ticketing system, with new planting aimed to offset any biodiversity loss.
The location of the car park and some woodland screening would reduce the visual impact.
And the report adds: “As the proposed car park is designed to work as closely as possible with the existing levels, the line of the existing burns and the surrounding treescape, it will ensure as much of the existing landscape elements are maintained.”
Last year, Gillespie Leisure lodged a scoping report with the council as part of a bid to add more than 120 units to the holiday park, with the council deciding an environmental impact assessment was required. Gillespie Leisure was contacted for comment.
