THE conversion of Gattonside House into residential flats has been put back another three years, following a successful bid by the developers for more time.

The Brothers of Charity, a catholic organisation which is headquartered in Rome, received approval from Scottish Borders Council in March 2011 to convert the historic Gattonside building into 15 flats and to build 44 houses to the south east of the property.

However, negotiations between the developers and council planners for developer contributions took several years to complete, and full planning permission was only granted in December 2016.

The Brothers of Charity wanted to reduce the number of affordable housing units down to five, from the required 14, but a compromise was reached and the developers are set to provide nine affordable housing units.

Furthermore, the Brothers of Charity will have to contribute £287,530 towards education, £81,550 towards the redevelopment of the Borders railway route, and £29,500 towards play facilities.

The commencement period for the development ran out in February 2019, meaning the developers have had to reapply to Scottish Borders Council’s planning department for a three-year extension period.

The application was heard by councillors sitting on the council’s planning and building standards committee, which met on Monday 25 March.

Barry Fotheringham, Scottish Borders Council’s principal planning officer, told the committee: “The principle of development on this land has clearly been established by inclusion in the local development plan.

“Given the suspensive nature of planning conditions, sufficient justification has been made for an additional three year period.

“Furthermore, there are no local or national policy constraints that would not support the renewal of consent.

“A further listed building consent will be required for the conversion of Gattonside House. This will be considered separately.

“I recommend that this application is approved.”

Councillors were advised that the acceptance of a new section 75 agreement would be straightforward, as the terms had already been agreed in the previous planning application, and so councillors voted unanimously to approve the three-year commencent period.