NORTH Ayrshire Council has approved its own plans for a new Ardrossan school campus.

The plans were brought to the council's planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday, September 20 and decided upon by its present members.

Before a vote on the plans was conducted, those in attendance heard from objectors to the proposal. They then heard from the applicants JM Architects, which submitted the plans on behalf of North Ayrshire Council.

Nikki Jones and Judith Corcoran spoke on behalf of the residents of Harbour View - situated only a short distance from the proposed site on Ardrossan North Shore.

They highlighted five key issues which they felt should be addressed before the application could proceed.

Issues referred specifically to the air quality around the site, traffic management, concerns around noise levels, specifically from the sports pitches included in the plans, a proper lighting report before approval and the general nuisance which could be caused by the development.

Nikki Jones added: "It's not that we are against the progression of Ardrossan and eduction here."

She added that her main concerns were the health factors relating to residents of surrounding homes and of the school pupils.

Adrian Wishart then spoke briefly on behalf of JM Architects to discuss the plans in a bid to address some of the concerns raised.

Committee members then had the opportunity to ask questions to the project manager of the plans, Yvonne Holland.

At this stage, traffic management concerns were raised by Cllr Cameron Inglis with regards to the current survey included in plans which was taken "during Covid times" back in 2021.

Yvonne Holland said that they would be happy to complete another traffic management survey this year.

Cllr Ian Murdoch then raised concerns with regards to the suitability of the road infrastructure which already takes ferry traffic as well as the fire service, coastguard and ambulance service vehicles which are all based nearby. He added that he has learned from his previous experience, with the development of a new school campus in Largs.

He was told this was all taken into consideration and that the infrastructure was considered sufficient as it was planned by experts deployed to carry out assessments.

Chief planning officer Allan Finalyson spoke next, running through his report from the application, which had been sent to all planning committee members.

The floor was then opened once again to committee members to ask any further questions that they had at this stage.

Cllr Timothy Billings voiced concerns over the noise level, and nuisance this may cause, particulary from the sports pitches.

Allan Finlayson replied to say that this was hard to control under conditions and was "best managed at source".

He added that reports "have established that" noise levels increases anticipated for surrounding residents are "a reasonable increase" and there were not concerns for "repeated" nuisance.

Cllr Billings emphasised that locals would be replacing occasional "one off" noises with noise "everyday of the year" and that this needed consideration - though was again told that this was not something which could be "reasonably controlled".

A question was raised regarding contamination of the site - and it was emphasised to committee members that even with approval of this application, work would not begin until the toxic land at the North Shore site was no longer contaminated.

A previous application for the remediation work was approved in relation to this fact - so no further discussion was required on this issue.

With no further questions asked, the committee then had to make its decision.

Cllr Inglis proposed a motion that the application was approved with conditions specified in the  planning officers report - plus an addition request for the traffic management survey to be re-done.

Cllr Billings then proposed an amendment that the planning decision should be postponed to allow for further assessment of the issues raised by objectors.

The motion was carried by five votes to three and the application was therefore approved.

As well as the condition referred to in the motion, approval of the application was also subject to 14 other conditions.

These can be viewed in full via the council's website here.