Dominic Fairlie, a director of Scotia Homes, attended Monday's meeting of Mearns Community Council and spelt out his company's plans for Laurencekirk.

Mr Fairlie said his company had been in Laurencekirk for a long time, building a number of sites of suburban-type houses.

"Our business model is moving away from that type of development to more urban developments where properties adjoin a neighbouring plot on at least one side.

"There is an area of land on the south side of Laurencekirk (formerly Scrapehard croft), which is zoned for commercial development in the local plan. We are taking the opportunity to look at that site as well as other places in Laurencekirk.

"We cannot look at any scheme in isolation, we have to look at how it fits into the town.

"We have a three-stage engagement process with the community: Getting out information; Exploring different options and refining and modelling ideas.

"We are looking for suggestions as to which groups and individuals may want to engage in the process."

Mr Fairlie said the company want to start the engagement process before the summer holidays.

He said he had "no idea" how many homes his company wanted to build, adding it was not a question of how many homes, but what the people wanted the development to look like.

He suggested a development on the south side of the town could be a "mixed bag" with an element of commercial development.

"That is part of the consultation, to see how much commercial is wanted."

Pressed by Alan Mowat to say how much of the site would be for commerical use, Mr Fairlie said he couldn't answer, but felt it would be "more than 10%."

He suggested the take-up of sites on the town's business park had been "slow" because there was not a lot of money in it and that these sites do not actually employ many people.

"We look at it in terms of job spaces created, perhaps in a more concentrated work environment."

Mr Fairlie referred to work done by his company in Ellon and said that much of that experience could be brought to Laurencekirk.

Councillor Tom Fleming said new housing developments tended to be three or four bedroom houses which was no help to people who wanted to downsize and was told that the process about to start would address that.

Mr Fairlie said urban schemes have a higher density than suburban and that the provision of affordable housing was "fundamental" to the urban principle.

"We will do what the council want us to do and these houses could be for sale or for rent. They will be 'pepper potted' through the development and no one will be able to tell the difference between them and the other homes."

Thanking Mr Fairlie, chairman David Nelson said the community council would do its best to ensure that as many people as possible attend the engagement process meetings.