Culzean bay holiday park gets go ahead despite objections from as far away as the United States

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A holiday park proposal near Culzean Castle that attracted objections from across the world has been given the go ahead by councillors.More than 90 objectors from as far afield as the United States made known their views on the holiday home plan at Croy Beach.The application looked set for refusal after planners indicated they were also opposed to the building of nine modular holiday lodges on ‘undeveloped’ farmland.But councillors on South Ayrshire Council’s Regulatory Panel thought otherwise as they gave John Duncan, of Castlehill Farm, planning permission for his application last Thursday.Mr Duncan told the panel that his family had owned the farm for a century, but indicated that it had become ‘financially unviable’, adding that he ‘hoped it would not be seen as an opportunistic application’.He said: “I am old enough to remember when Croy beach was one of the most popular beaches in the country.“The council themselves employed a gate person who charged half a crown for cars going onto the beach.

There was one Sunday of the Glasgow Fair, when 1,800 cars were reported to have gone onto the beach. That is roughly two to three thousand people.“Matters have obviously moved on and changed – there is now car park at either end.

But those who use the car park are reluctant to walk very far from their cars.”Planners had raised issues with use of land marked as ‘undeveloped’ and impacting on the visual landscape.Mr Duncan argued that the beach was between five and seven metres below the fields and, therefore, out of sight.He added that the Scottish Government had been calling on farmers to diversify in order to find new streams of income.One objector, Anna Burns, appeared at the panel to make her case on behalf of her family.