Seven members of public lay out objections to plan

A group of seven members of the public attended the most recent meeting of Coupar Angus and B endo chy Community Council, held last week in Coupar Angus Town Hall, urging the community council to register an objection to a proposal of application notice that has been submitted to Perth and Kinross Council by Glenshee Pheasantries.

The application is for a change of us e of land situated along Myreriggs Road between Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus from agricultural to permit game farming.

Speaking at the meeting, one member of the public, Stuart Rutherford, claimed: “The fact of the matter is that they are running an illegal operation as they have no planning permission.

“When t hey first moved onto the site residents made PK C aware and a planning officer visited and indicate d that at that stage it would probably fall under agriculture.

“This huge development then ensued, PKC came back and visited the site, which is when the legal situation developed.

“They appealed to the Scottish Government on the basis of an email that was sent. The Scottish Government granted an extension to them being on the site until September 30, and they have now submitted a notice of application notice to allow them to stay on beyond the end of next month.”

Mr Rutherford went on: “One of the issues we have is the traffic on a single track road which has a number of blind corners.

“Large containers delivering feed and vehicles transporting birds are causing road safety issues.

“They also keep dogs in kennels which bark.”

Catherine Thornhill of Savills submitted the planning application notice on behalf of Glenshee Pheasantries, hosted a public consultation event at the Red House Hotel and was also at the community council meeting.

She explained that the pre-planning pro c ess for major planning applications was designed to “try to iron out any issues that arise” and said that there would be more consultation as part of the planning application process.

Community councillors said members of the public had raised concerns about the application, questioning whether, for example, gas cylinders were normally kept outwith locked cages and how many people had been consulted about the application.

However, another local resident who was at the meeting, Steve Cooksley, described the residents’ issues as a “vendetta”.

He said: “There’s no noise, there’s no smell, I’ve never heard so much rubbish in all my life.

“This is some sort of vendetta, the whole operation used to be a pig farm - there would be more noise and smell if there were pigs there.”

Local councillor for the Strathmore ward, Colin Stewart, was at the meeting and has visited the site.

Addressing t he residents, he asked if a “happy medium” cound be found between“someone wanting to bring jobs to the area and residents wanting to enjoy the amenities of living in the countryside”.

But one member of the public replied: “I don’t think we as residents can see any positives.”

And when Ms Thornhill asked the residents to come up with one issue that something could be done to alleviate it, such as planting a hedge for example, one resident stated: “It’s totally irrelevant, there’s nothing they can do, it’s a nonstarter for us.”