View ‘Planning-speak’ and lack of ambition by PKC
I write in relation to the proposed redevelopment of the Crieff Hotel site ( Strathearn Herald, February 23).
I have the greatest sympathy for John Mauchline and the Creative Crieff board at the way Perth and Kinross Council and Historic Environment Scotland ( HES) have been responding to this golden opportunity to bring a commercially viable and environmentally attractive facility to East High Street, Crieff.
John and his colleagues must be incandescent at the totally vacuous utterances forthcoming from the council and, previously, HES – especially from the planner who criticised the use of white render on the proposed structure!
Has this planner ever visited Crieff, and seen the whiterendered Tower Hotel just up the street? Or the new whiterendered houses and flats off Mitchell Street? Or all the whiterendered new homes off Broich Road? strathearnherald.co.uk.
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I invite the council officials involved – and our local councillors – to stand opposite the north-facing façade of the derelict hotel and to defend their statement that its demolition would generate “an adverse impact on visual amenity”.
This is planning-speak and utter balderdash!
The lack of get- up- andgo within Perth and Kinross Council to get things done for
our local towns, as opposed to the city of Perth, is a statement I’d agree with because of my ongoing experience in relation to the care, access to, and location of Crieff ’s three magnificent monuments, which continue to fester away in the basement of the old Town Hall – a building which has no commercial rental proposition any longer and is a detrimental home for our monuments.
Any party disagreeing with me should request a visit to the building and a copy of the council’s latest Condition Report on the basement/monuments.
We, the council tax-payers, stumped up almost £200,000 to refurbish the building for a failed business development venture (with a £1 per annum rental).
Adding insult to injury, the current awful appearance of the monuments’ display area is down to the fact that the council’s contractors used the wrong type of paint for the walls!
Again, I invite our three local councillors to visit what I have previously referred to as “Crieff’s cultural slum”.
None have done so to the best of my knowledge.
Sadly, the old proverb ‘there are none so blind as those who won’t see’ is in danger of becoming Crieff ’s epitaph, rather than a rallying call to those who wish to realise and meet its potential and needs as its population rises.