No action over fake planning objections
Investigations have ended into fake planning objections which were lodged against an application to build a new hotel in Kirkwall.
In January, it emerged that bogus objection letters had been sent to Orkney Islands Council (OIC), criticising the proposals for the 92-bed property.
Planning permission is being sought by Orkney Builders (Contractors) Ltd to build the four-storey hotel on the site of the former Jewson’s yard.
The objection letters were lodged in the name of the former proprietor of the Kirkwall Hotel and of the current owner of the Stromness Hotel.
When it was discovered that they were fakes, the representations were removed from the authority’s planning portal, where they had been publicly available to view.
OIC said this was believed to be the first incident of its kind, since the digital planning portal was introduced here in 2008.
The council said it would investigate the submissions to try and trace the source, but now it says this has concluded.
A spokesman for the authority said: “The matter is now closed, and the false objections will not be taken into account in the determination of the application.”
The Orcadian understands that the matter was raised with Police Scotland, but that it was deemed that no crime had occurred.
The council spokesman said that no change is needed to the existing process for lodging objection which, he said, “is key to the open and accessible nature of the planning system.”
“The council contacts the named persons in any objection as a matter of course, and false submissions are identified through normal procedure,” the spokesman added.
One objection remains on the planning portal on behalf of the Royal Mail.
It claims that a hotel “in such close proximity” to its Junction Road premises “could restrict or ultimately prevent Royal Mail operations at that site.”
Jas Thind, owner of the Ayre Hotel, also lodged an objection, but this was deemed to have arrived too late by planning officials.
VisitScotland has praised the plans lodged by Orkney Builders, saying it would provide “much needed visitor facilities” in the town.