Go-ahead for Milnathort sports pavilion at memorial park

Contentious plans for a new sports pavilion at Milnathort have been approved.

Kinross Colts Football Club tabled its bid for a base at Donaldson Memorial Park earlier this year.

The project had been in the pipeline for several years and was previously rejected by Perth and Kinross Council after opposition from locals in 2013.

The scheme has been passed after discussions by the local authority’s development management committee.

Councillors heard bollards would restrict vehicular access from Church Street, while the main entrance will be from South Street.

Parking, one of the most contentious aspects of the plan, will be at Milnathort Primary School, it was decided.

Planning officers, who backed the pavilion, received 11 objections and 10 letters and emails in support.

Bosses at Kinross Colts say the new facilities are “desperately needed” due to a shortage of grass pitches in the area and will help secure the future of children’s teams.

The club and its teams work with more than 230 children from Kinross, Milnathort and the surrounding area.

It is also hoped the building will help to increase usage of the park and could be made available for wider use by community groups.

Although Milnathort Community Council shares many of the club’s aspirations, chairman Steve Young said that “on balance” it was minded to object, given local opposition.

The watchdog group raised concerns about the suitability of the site, which sits between the existing football pitches and the boundary of the primary school, and the scale of the building.