A PLANNING application for a major housing development in Helensburgh has been lodged with council planning chiefs.

Developer Bellway Homes is seeking permission to build 123 houses and 20 flatted properties at the Sawmill Field site at the east end of Helensburgh.

It was originally considered by the authority’s officials to be invalid, but details can now be found at the council’s online planning portal under the code number 19/02604/PP.

Developer Bellway Homes is proposing 15 separate house types for the site, east of Hermitage Academy, comprising 109 properties for private sale and 36 affordable homes

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In addition, a "safe, useable children's play area" is included in the plans, along with "appropriate landscaping features throughout the site to create an appropriate design solution".

The Sawmill Field site, which is owned by Helensburgh and Lomond South councillor Richard Trail and his three brothers, is zoned for up to 145 homes in the council’s local development plan.

Bellway was named in September as the ‘preferred developer’ for the site after another firm, Cala Homes, withdrew in April.

Cala had previously sought, and received, outline planning permission from the council in 2016 to build 120 homes on the land.

READ MORE: New developer lined up for Sawmill Field housing site in Helensburgh

A design and access statement in support of the application says: "The layout is designed to provide an efficient and coordinated development.

"The strategy has focused on providing a high level of amenity to residents through the integration of quality open space and maximising views towards the coast.

"The introduction of a wide range of high quality house types brings variety to the streetscape and assists in placemaking.

"The development of this site for housing meets the aims and objectives of planning policy, from both a national and strategic scale to the more detailed Argyll and Bute Local Development Plan.

"The development has been carefully designed in response to the immediate context of the site, whilst seeking to deliver a modern housing development in keeping with current guidance such as Designing Streets."

The lodging of a formal planning application comes only two weeks after outline plans were unveiled for a hotel, office and pub/restaurant development directly opposite the Sawmill Field site, on the southern side of the A814.

READ MORE: 'Several hundred jobs' could be created in Helensburgh hotel and office plan

The Sawmill Field application is accompanied by an extensive range of supporting documents, including a pre-application consultation report, architectural plans, engineering plans, assessments of transport, air quality and noise impacts, an archaeological report, a preliminary ecological appraisal, a flood risk assessment, a ground investigation report,and floor plans and elevations for each individual house type.

It also includes assessments of the proposal against the Scottish Government's 'Place Standard Tool' and Helensburgh Community Council's design statement for major developments in the area.

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