TROUBLED WATERS AT SANDBANK
TENANTS in a quiet Sandbank housing estate are growing increasingly concerned for the safety of their property after a neighbour diverted the course of a stream which runs past their houses.
Residents of Queen’s Road in the village complained to the council some time ago about the activities of Mr Tony Stonehouse, whose house is situated on the opposite bank of the stream.
However, despite the fact that the burn flooded two weeks ago for the first time in living memory, the environmental body SEPA (The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) has accepted Mr Stonehouse’s argument that he has simply restored it to its original route, and has advised him to apply for retrospective planning permission.
This approach has enraged a number of people, particularly the local councillor, Bruce Marshall, and neighbours who claim that they are suffering from the effects of Mr Stonehouse’s activity.
While many of the residents did not want to be named, Mr Stonehouse’s neighbour, Mr Willie Donn, had no such inhibitions.
“I’m gobsmacked,” he said. “This man has stuck two fingers up to authority and got away with it.
“Bodies like SEPA are there to protect the environment - what’s the point of their existence if they can’t do their jobs?
“This burn has never caused any problems in the seven years that we’ve lived here. Even in the heaviest rain the level never rose above 18 inches. Then Mr Stonehouse altered its course. Two weeks ago my garden flooded. The water came over a seven foot high wall and a caravan in the garden was almost floating. Three garden mowers stored in our shed were ruined. Fortunately I got the car out before it happened, for there was two feet of water in the garage.
“I’m a landscape gardener - it’s my business to know about drainage, but you don’t need to be a genius to realise that if you alter the route of a watercourse there are going to be consequences.
“I certainly don’t intend to let this rest. I will object most strongly when it comes before planning, and I am fully prepared to go to law over the matter.”
Mr Donn wasn’t the only neighbour with concerns over his neighbour’s activities.
A deputation of concerned tenants met with an Observer reporter on Tuesday to highlight the situation; this followed a call to the office from Councillor Bruce Marshall, who described the situation as ‘unbelievable’.
Residents claimed that they had experienced a series of problems over the last two years with Mr Stonehouse, whose house is across the stream from Queen’s Road.
None of them wished to be named, but their spokeswoman outlined the course of events. She said: “Throughout the whole of the summer he lit huge fires on his land, burning cardboard boxes and pallets. It was impossible to sit outside and we had to keep our windows closed because the amount of smoke was incredible.
“We contacted environmental health and they put a stop to it.
“He started in the stream a couple of years back using a spade, but later began using a digger. Basically he’s redirected it and narrowed it. He also dumped huge quantities of rubbish, including glass, into the stream.
“Some of us have lived here for 40 years and the stream has never flooded, but it did a couple of weeks back and poured into his neighbour’s property, as a result of which he lost a great deal of equipment stored in his shed.”
There are also concerns over the stability of trees bordering the burn. One tree toppled over in October and fell into one of the gardens in Queen’s Road.
Councillor Marshall said that he was ‘livid’ over the attitude of officials over the problem.
“Three months ago I complained to SEPA, the council’s enforcement officer, the environmental officer and the Head of Legal Services about what was going on in Queen’s Road.”
SEPA is the body responsible for watercourses in Scotland.
“It’s illegal to alter the course of a stream,” explained Cllr Marshall. “Anyone who does so can be fined up to £20,000 for doing so. This legislation was passed back in 2005.
“However, the SEPA official who has dealt with this matter proposes to take no action whatsoever.
“He tells me that there is a transitional period after the law comes into force, so the perpetrator won’t be fined - that period ended last month.”
He also believes Mr Stonehouse’s assertion that all the rubbish in the stream was dumped there by the residents of Queen’s Road, and not by him.
“He accepts Mr Stonehouse’s contention that the work he has been carrying out is actually restoring the stream to its original course.
“This is despite the fact that this stream had taken the same course for as long as anyone can remember, and that it had never flooded until Mr Stonehouse altered its route.
“Worse still, he accepted all of what he was told by Mr Stonehouse without taking the trouble to ask anyone else for their views - and there is no shortage of people whose grasp of events is dramatically different from Mr Stonehouse’s.
“The official has advised him to apply to the council for retrospective planning permission.
“I find this whole thing amazing. Argyll and Bute Council is put through hoops by SEPA in the planning process. Every ‘I’ has to be dotted, and every ‘t’ crossed to make sure we adhere to their regulations.
“How can they possibly let this sort of thing pass without taking action?”
However Mr Stonehouse took a diametrically different point of view.
“All I’ve done is to reinstate the burn to its original route,” he said. “The problem is being caused by leaves blocking a grille further downstream.
“The real cause of the problem is that people in the council houses opposite have been dumping all sorts of junk into the burn for years, sofas, and garden rubbish, and the council has also dumped rubble in it.
“Until two years ago I could do nothing about it, but when I bought the land I told them to stop it, and that’s what’s annoying them.”
Mr Stonehouse claims that for the last 13 years he has been keeping the burn clear because no one else had bothered. He no longer had time to do this, and the fact that the grille was choked with leaves had caused the flooding.
He claims that the cause of the problem is the replacement of the previous grille with a new one which was trapping the debris.
He denied that he had been burning cardboard and pallets in his garden. “I was burning the rubbish which I’d hauled from the burn, and using boxes to get it lit.”
However, it seems that the council is taking a rather less sympathetic view of Mr Stonehouse’s activities than SEPA.
A one-line statement from Kilmory said simply: “This matter has been referred to Planning and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. The council has serious concerns on the works associated with this unauthorised works.”


CARES alarm over wind turbine growth
A spokesman for the CARES (Cowal And Renewable Energy Sense) group confirmed this week that the windfarm planned on Corlick Hill (above Greenock) would indeed be highly visible from eastern Cowal - particularly affecting the views from Hunter’s Quay, Strone and Blairmore, as well as upper Dunoon and Kirn.
“When added to the plans for further windfarms above Inverkip, Largs, and Kelburn, the views across the Firth could be utterly transformed” he said.
Previously little had been known about the visual impact of the Greenock scheme, and it is understood that only the Helensburgh office of Argyll and Bute Council was informed when the application was lodged in 2003. From the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) seen recently by a CARES member, all 23 turbines would be highly visible on the eastern skyline from Strone/Blairmore, and 6-12 from Hunter’s Quay and upper Dunoon/Kirn. Due to lack of awareness at the time, there has been little opportunity for people in Cowal to register their objections or comment to this scheme. Although Inverclyde Council recommended refusal, a decision from the Scottish Executive is still awaited.
However, a recent backlash of angry letters to the local paper in Stirling protesting over the disastrous visual impact of the half-built ‘Braes of Doune’ windfarm near Dunblane has demonstrated the problems when people are caught unaware of the implications of such a scheme. It appears that very few people in that area knew about it or understood the implications at the time of its planning application in 2004; so much so that only five objections were received. However it is now too late for objections, and the giant structures dominate the views west from Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument, as well as views from within the nearby National Park.
The coverage in the Stirling paper has also highlighted the kind of financial rewards awaiting landowners, with the 36 turbine ‘Braes of Doune’ windfarm expected to yield a rental income for the landowner of £400,000 per annum. Another landowner on Lewis is reportedly expecting an annual income of £1.25m over the next 25 years.
In the case of the planned Black Craig windfarm (for 19 giant turbines high above Loch Striven), Mr Blacker is expected to earn considerably more, since he would be both operator and landowner. He is reported to be pressing hard to gain planning permission as soon as possible, despite serious local opposition and shortcomings in the EIA. Yet Land Use Consultants, who produced both the EIA and the recent document “Dunoon and the National Park Gateway”, have described the Dunoon/Holy Loch area as “unique place which benefits from a particularly high quality natural environment”.
CARES is alarmed to hear that a second planning application is expected shortly for 14 giant turbines on Corlarach Hill(above Innellan/Toward), and urges as many people as possible to attend the presentation about it in the Queen’s Hall Dunoon on December 7 - next Thursday - from 4-8pm. “People have a right to know the implications of such schemes in scenic areas, where the local economy depends on quality landscapes - the very thing which attracts tourists to the area”, said the spokesman. “We don’t want another ‘Braes of Doune’ fiasco here!”.


Lifeboat called to sinking cruiser
The Helensburgh RNLI Lifeboat was called out on Wednesday evening to go to the assistance of a fast motor cruiser that had struck a rock in the entrance to Loch Goil, and was rapidly taking in water.
The Lifeboat launched shortly after 6.30pm and made good speed around the Rosneath peninsula and up Loch Long, arriving alongside the stricken vessel in 25 minutes.
The 30-foot jet drive motor cruiser ‘Alderney Felix’ had struck Knap Rock, lying about 20 metres from the shore, at an estimated 20 knots, leaving a three-foot hole ripped below the waterline in the bow of the boat.
Four adults were on board the ‘Alderney Felix’, two who were suffering some ill-effects from the impact were transferred to the Lifeboat and taken to Carrick Castle, where the boat had set out from.
The ‘Alderney Felix’s’ skipper attempted to refloat his boat whilst the the transfer was being made, but with sea water flooding in through the hole, the boat rapidly started to sink lower in the water, and when the Lifeboat returned to the scene, it was agreed that any further attempt to refloat the boat was not a viable option.
The ‘Alderney Felix’ was then secured to prevent her from totally sinking; as much removable gear was taken off as possible, and the two remaining people on board, transferred to the Lifeboat and landed, with their gear, at Carrick Castle.
The Lifeboat then returned to her Rhu Marina base, arriving shortly before 10pm, after a 3-hour service and the successful rescue of four shipwrecked mariners.
The following day, local marine contractors Gareloch Support Services managed, in stormy conditions, to salvage the ‘Alderney Felix’ and brought her back to Rhu Marina on board one of their all-purpose multi-cat craft


Concerns over old West Bay paddling pond
LOCAL people are voicing concern about the state of the old boating and paddling pool in Dunoon’s West Bay.
The pond, which has lain disused and empty for a number of years, was filled with spoil from excavations carried out by Scottish Water’s contractors when they were laying the sewerage pipework in Dunoon. It has been untouched since the work finished, and does little to enhance the appearance of the area, a popular spot for strollers.
A spokesman for Scottish Water confirmed that this was the case.
“The spoil in the old pond is connected to our plans for a proper waste water treatment works for Dunoon,” he said.
“The site at West Bay is to be converted into a pumping station to take all the sewage from the town and send it along to our proposed works at Bullwood.”
However, this plan was thrown into disarray when the application was turned down by Argyll and Bute Council.
The spokesman said that the company was in the process of reviewing its plans with a view to submitting an appeal. He went on to say that the planning officials supported our proposal, which would put a stop to dozens of discharges of raw sewage along the Dunoon seafront.
“The works would be sited in a good location out of view and would have the capacity to cater for the Hunter’s Quay caravan park and expected future growth in the town.
“The agreement we had made with Argyll and Bute Council regarding the old pond was that once the pumping station had been created we would give it a nice finished surface and they would install a playpark facility, which would have been a great spin off benefit from our plans.”
He concluded by saying that if people have concerns about the site, they should get in touch with Scottish Water.
If Scottish Water does decide to launch an appeal, the omens are good for them - they have a 100percent record in terms of winning appeals against planning decisions.