Housing battle gadgets stolen

Vital air quality monitors disappear

A Scone community councillor has slammed thieves who stole two air quality monitors set up to assist in a fight against a major housing development.

Martin Rhodes, a member of Scone and District Community Council (SDCC), told the Perthshire Advertiser there could be no doubt the vandals had deliberately targeted the devices in order to frustrate the group’s efforts to collect data on dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide.

The community council intends to use the data to demonstrate the village cannot cope with any more traffic and congestion when councillors meet to make up their minds on whether A&J Stephen’s application to build up to 700 houses at Scone North should be approved.

Mr Rhodes said the devices, obtained from Friends of the Earth Scotland, had already demonstrated levels of nitrogen dioxide in some parts of the

village were well above the EU limit of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre before they were taken.

He said one of the devices had been tampered with ahead of its disappearance, indicating the thefts were orchestrated by people intent on preventing the group from taking pollution readings ahead of PKC’s determination of the application.

“This is causing extreme concern as an accurate figure of the pollution threat to the people who live in the village is extremely important,” he said, adding: “The tampering of the units is obviously deliberate.”

However, Mr Rhodes sent out a defiant message to those responsible for removing the equipment, revealing more monitors have been placed in the village and have been heavily disguised to prevent any more interference.

“We’ve got monitors all over Scone and we’re keeping a close eye on them to make sure they are not interfered with,” he said.

The thefts have not been reported to Police Scotland.

Mr Rhodes went on to issue a reminder that SDCC has invited all the PKC election candidates to a hustings at the Robert Douglas Memorial Institute on Monday, where Scone North is likely to dominate the discussions.

All residents are welcome to attend the hustings, which will start at 6.10pm, and ask candidates any questions.