BUSINESSMEN Sandy and James Easdale say there is “every chance” their £100million plans for the former IBM Greenock site “will no longer be economically viable”.
Inverclyde Council’s planning board voted 5-4 to grant planning permission for 270 houses on the site –- 40 per cent lower than the 450-house development applied for by the Easdales and Advance Construction.
| More information in coverage of meeting
The Easdales stated: “We are bitterly disappointed that Inverclyde may potentially lose the opportunity to see this brownfield site regenerated for the benefit of the local region.
“We will speak to our construction partners and advisors in the days and weeks ahead but there is every chance that the project will no longer be economically viable at the scale approved by the council. We now need to consider the outcome in more detail prior to making any decisions.”
They added: “Years of preparatory work, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, went into deciding a suitable design for the scheme to bring residential and employment benefits to the area.
“We then submitted a planning application on this basis which has taken two years to reach this stage — only to be told by council officers just days before the committee meeting that the plans were not suitable.
“Our design for the scheme was not plucked out of thin air — it was one that made the plans commercially viable as a result of the substantial investment required to develop the site.
“We have no quarrel with councillors who made the decision on the basis of the information given to them. We recognise the difficult choice councillors faced.
“The Scottish Government published its Housing to 2040 strategy last year and made it clear that it wanted to see private investment to build the nation’s future housing stock. It is a shame that a can-do vision does not extend to the former IBM site.”
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