Vertu Motors plc: Application lodged for Ayr retail site

A planning application has been lodged for Vertu Motors plc for vacant land to the rear of Old Farm Road, near the Whitletts roundabout.

Documents lodged with South Ayrshire Council describe a “new motor retail unit, valet building and associated hard and soft landscaping”.

The plans – described in documents submitted by agents McLaren, Murdoch & Hamilton as a “double dealership” – also include parking space for 360 cars on the site, as well as a bin storage enclosure for the collection of commercial waste and recycling.

The site is located next to the Travis Perkins building material supply firm and, according to documents published on the council’s website, is currently owned by Glasgow-based Dawn Developments.

The application states a proposed floor space of 1,816 square metres for the premises.

The current site (Image: google)

According to the application details on the local authority’s website, a previous application for the site was lodged by the same applicant in October but was withdrawn last month, shortly before the new proposals were lodged.

Outline planning permission was sought in 1997 for a leisure development on the site, but that application was withdrawn two years later.

South Ayrshire Council has set an ‘internal target date’ of April 4 for a decision on the application.

Based in Gateshead, the Vertu Motors group, which was formed in 2006, includes more than 190 motor dealerships across the UK, under the trading names of Vertu Motors, Bristol Street Motors and Macklin Motors.

The company has been operating in Scotland since 2010 and has several sites in Scotland, though the Ayr application, if granted, would be the group’s first site in Ayrshire.

The application and background documents can be viewed on South Ayrshire Council’s website by searching for the planning application reference 23/00088/APP.