Background to a bitter controversy
The Park of Keir appeal site covers an area of 110 hectares in the green belt between Dunblane and Bridge of Allan.
The land, part of the Keir Local Landscape Area, is accessed by a spur from the Keir roundabout between the M9 and the A9.
Proposals to develop the site had already proven controversial over the previous two decades, leading to two public inquiries in 1992 and 2004 which rejected housing on the land but approved a hotel. There was an abortive community buy-out in 2004.
Judy Murray announced plans to create a tennis and golf centre there in June 2013 but the proposal for around 100 houses on the site to help finance the project proved unpopular. The proposals were revised and relaunched in June 2015 to instead feature 19 luxury houses and the offer of turning the majority of the area over to the community as a 100-acre country park, the largest in the area, to be managed by a community investment company made up partly of locals.
The proposed tennis and golf facility will include six indoor and six outdoor tennis courts, a short golf course with six holes, a golf practice range, putting areas, coaching bays and changing facilities, multisport artificial grass courts, a tennis museum and a cafe/ restaurant with viewing gallery.
The centre would comprise two connected buildings with a maximum ridge height of 7.7 metres.
The outdoor leisure activities would include a children’s outdoor adventure park with picnic areas, a multi-purpose all-weather (3G) pitch and additional footpaths to open up the area to walkers and cyclists.
A four-star, 150-bedroom hotel is proposed, including conference facilities, gym and spa, which would be three storeys high with a maximum ridge height of 12 metres.
40 hectares of the site is proposed to establish a new country park.
Nineteen luxury houses would be sited in two areas.
None of the statutory consultees objected to the proposals but more than 1000 letters of objection were lodged, together with 45 letters of support and a further 71 letters commenting on the proposals.
Intimations of support came from Visitscotland, Lawn Tennis Association, Professional Golfers Association and Dunblane Soccer Club.
Objectors included Scottish Wildlife Trust, Bridge of Allan and Logie SNP branch and Bridge of Allan Golf Club.