Another twist in store saga
Focus on Broich Road as November deadline set
A Crieff danger road has been placed at the centre of plans to bring a new supermarket to the town.
Developers behind proposals for an Aldi store are to be asked for their views on schemes to improve the bottleneck Broich Road, Burrell Street and King Street junctions, and their potential costs.
That could effectively pull together solutions for two of the big issues affecting Crieff.
And, councillors have slapped a November deadline on bringing the supermarket saga to an end.
It comes as interest in the scheme has increased significantly, with opposing planning applications and the refusal of permission to demolish key buildings also adding to the myriad twists and turns.
The Local Review Body (LRB), a group of councillors who consider planning appeals, met on Tuesday week as part of a request to Perth and Kinross Council to overturn the red light for Aldi’s plans.
The three members - councillors Murray Lyle, Dave Cuthbert and Ian Campbell - toured the Duchlage Road on Monday. The Herald understands an unprecedented
level of community officials and representatives of the applicants turned out at the site visit.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the LRB called on for more information to be supplied to help members reach a decision, with councillors remarking they were keen on ending the matter.
The LRB has requested further details of:
• Transport options - This will see Perth and Kinross Council roads experts asked to come up with a scheme or schemes to improve the layout at Broich Road which provides the access to the opposing supermarket sites. Developers will be able to consider the junction solutions and the costs involved.
• Public transport - The LRB says provision of public transport to and from the site should be considered, and it wants to hear of provisions for that.
The LRB has also requested details of what the applicant could do with listed buildings on the Duchlage Farm site and if it has any plans to retain them. Aldi had applied to demolish the buildings which would form part of the parking spaces, but this was knocked back in December.
Convenor Murray Lyle asked each councillor what they wanted from the application, with Cllr Dave Cuthbert responding: “We need to set a time limit on the application as it has gone on long enough.”
Cllr Campbell requested options for the disused farm buildings.
Cllr Lyle ramped up the interest on the Broich Road junction, saying: “We need to have written information from the roads department on the junction, and also the proportionate and approximate costings for these, if there is more than one.”
And he piled on the pressure, setting a November determination date for the scheme, giving officials with PKC and other interested parties around three months to look at the options and have their responses in.
“We all agree that the matter needs to be brought to an end as soon as possible,” he added.
Community leaders in Crieff have frequently pushed for road safety and pedestrian improvements at Broich Road because of increased use with three schools now housed in the area.
The narrow point at the junction of Broich Road has continued to cause problems and it saw a woman seriously injured in a crush incident involving a double-decker bus.
Forty-four-year-old Lena Tocher spent weeks in hospital and has since called for road safety improvements at the spot.
The history of bringing another supermarket to Crieff goes back many years, starting at one time when both Sainsbury’s and Tesco were vying for the Strathearn town.
Both moves finally ended, despite Tesco gaining planning approval. The supermarket giant then offloaded the application site to London and Scottish Investments which currently has live permission to develop a store.
But a rival bid by Aldi emerged, and the growing supermarket firm submitted its own plans, complete with a second retail unit on the same site which is now before the LRB.