The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Calls for rail link at £33m development
Green politicians are calling for a railway link to be added to plans for a £33.8 million hotel and museum development at Kinfauns.
The Morris Leslie project will include a four-star hotel, lodges and a transport museum as well as a park and ride facility and is expected to create around 170 jobs and attract 80,000 visitors a year.
Perth and Kinross Green Party welcomed the idea of this investment but raised concerns about transport links for the project.
The development will be situated around 4.5 miles from Perth city centre and is currently only accessible along the A85 Dundee Road leading on to the A90.
With the park and ride facility long mooted for the West Kinfauns area, Green politicians are calling on Morris Leslie and planning chiefs to go further and create a rail stop.
Along with active travel links in both directions, they believe the rail link could help ease traffic congestion on the roads, especially with the influx of visitors.
Roger Humphry, coconvener of Perth and Kinross Greens said: “We welcome investment for developments, but we’re always very keen that these developments are sustainable. We really welcome investments from a local business especially – but there are some concerns.
“Access for the new development should be
sustainable and that will require good active travel access, which includes an active travel corridor.
“I think there would be great value if this development predicted and prepared an ambitious plan for a railway halt so that anyone could get out of their car and into a train and cut through all the traffic entirely.”
Mr Humphry believes one of the issues with the current park and ride proposal is that those leaving their cars at Kinfauns will still be met with congestion as they enter Perth.
Morris Leslie is carrying out an online public consultation on the plans at west-kinfauns.co.uk until March 30.
The information about the consultation states: “A transport assessment will be prepared to support the application to consider the transport requirements and implications of the development, which will be scoped with Transport Scotland and the Perth and Kinross transportation team”.