The One with the NMVs
19 April 2023
Readers of the History section of this blog (“There Was Once a Hamlet”) will know that, after a to and fro of communication with Fife Planning Department, the planning application submitted by Broomhall Estate for 8 dwellings was approved at the Fife’s West Area Planning Committee meeting on the 29th June 2017.
There are three plots of land associated with the development and, as Pattiesmuir is designated a conservation area, the design, materials, and scale of the buildings are required to comply with the relevant policies of the Dunfermline and West Fife Local Plan. Broomhall Estate had been granted planning permission for cottage style dwellings to be built with the traditional features of the roadside cottages in the Conservation village. (All illustrations reproduced with permission.)
Plot A, in particular, has three dwellings side by side along the length of the street.
The drawings indicated a ridge height of 5.9m, wooden sash and case windows, conservation rooflights and clay roof pantiles.
You may be wondering why, then, the illustrations on the recently removed advertising signage looked like this:
The reason is that Fife Planning staff have approved a series of Non-Material Variations – or NMVs for short.
What is a Non-Material Variation?
Handily Fife Council publishes an explanation on the Fife.gov.uk website. Just follow the NMV Explained button at the bottom of this blog.
Once planning permission has been granted, there can be instances where the proposed approved scheme may require to be amended by the applicant for any number of practical or design reasons. Section 64 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 allows a Planning Authority to “vary any planning permissions granted by them, if it appears to them that the variation sought is not material”. Such variations if minor in nature can be dealt with by submitting a request for a non-material variation (NMV). A non-material variation essentially means that the amendments proposed will not significantly change the scheme that was originally granted planning permission. Alterations that qualify as a non material variation are therefore by definition minor changes.
Of course, if a number of NMVs are submitted it is likely that the variation between the original plans and the final NMV is very much “material”.
The community reviewed these NMVs and found the following:
- The drawings associated with the original June 2017 approval for plots 1, 2 and 3 indicate a ridge height of 5.9m.
- NMV3, which was approved by Fife Council on 18/10/21, sought to increase the ridge height of Plots 4,5 & 6 by 400mm from 6.5m to 6.9m.
- This new 6.9m ridge height seems to have been adopted for all plots, despite not having been subject to any application or review for plots 1, 2 and 3
- NMV4, which was approved on 20/06/22, sought a 300mm increase in eaves height for all plots. An increase in ridge height was not requested, but this 300mm appears to have been added to the ridge height too, resulting in a new ridge height for all plots of 7.2m.
- It is suspected that this point has been missed by the Fife Council Planning Team, as it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the NMV request; there is a small dimension line shown on the drawings, which would be easy to miss.
Most of the existing buildings of our historic hamlet have significantly lower roof heights than the development now proposed. The ridge heights range from 4.2m to 5.0m. These compare with the ridge height of 7.2m now being implemented for the development.
In addition:
- The variations have changed the dwellings from “cottages” to houses which are modern and bland.
- Most of the “Conservation Area” features have been removed, presumably to make them easier and cheaper to build and to increase the sale price.
- These two-storey, slab sided houses are out of character with the historical nature of our hamlet.
To view the “visualisations” submitted to Fife Planning follow the NMV Visualisations link at the bottom of this blog and look at the last 11 documents on the list:
The response from Fife Planning Department
When the community challenged Fife Planning Department directly on the NMVs concerning ridge height and building appearance the response was:
“My judgement has been that the non-material variation applications that have been determined do not substantially change the description of the proposal and are acceptable for the reasons set out in each Report of Handling”
and that
“The recommendation to approve the NMVs has been counter signed by a Service Manager and they have agreed with the recommendation for approval”.
In essence then the representation made directly to the Planning Team was rejected on the basis that their recommendation had been approved by the ‘Service Manager’.
One has to ask: "Were the Planning Team’s original review of the NMVs, and our complaint given full and proper consideration?"
The community then took the remaining option open to them and submitted a Corporate Complaint to Fife Council.
A detailed review covering many of the community's other concerns included the conclusion by Fife Planning that:
"Whilst it was reasonable that two of the NMV submitted could be considered non-material variations in the context of the original development, Fife Planning agreed that the extent of cumulative changes approved through a further 3 NMV applications could not be considered non-material and that it was not reasonable to have approved them."
And what, you may well ask, were Fife Planning Department going to do about that?
“As a result of my findings a training session will be held with officers who determine NMV applications to ensure that the parameters and considerations as set out in the NMV guidance are applied consistently”
So that's alright then!
