Link road will bring pollution fall and rise

applicant, site developer and owner of the site land – the authority will play the part of judge, jury and executioner on this development.

There is no third party right of appeal; the application could only have been appealed had it been rejected. Given the political make-up of the planning panel this was never in doubt.

The second inaccuracy is from Councillor Jim Thomson’s who is quoted as saying that the route will have green benefits. He believes the VLR will reduce pollution in Dumbarton Road and Port Street.

My view is the VLR will indeed reduce pollution in these areas but they’re already the cleanest in the site area.

The council’s own air quality report show it is the Braehead area of the site which is by far the most polluted, up to twice the level of pollution in Dumbarton Road/Port Street and once the VLR is in place, pollution will fall in Dumbarton Road and rise around Linden Avenue. It will make the latter area three-times more polluted than Dumbarton Road area.

Overall the VLR will produce an additional 377 tonnes of CO2 – that’s some green benefit.

This is one of the reasons why our community council is unanimously against the

VLR and it should be for this reason that all three Stirling East councillors take a good hard look at themselves and vote against this project when the Budget is being set in February.

Gary McGrow Planning representative, Braehead and Broomridge Community Council

A spokesperson for Stirling Council told the Stirling Observer: “The Scottish Government did not have to rubberstamp the VLR planning application.

“Stirling Council’s Planning Panel can determine applications of this scale under its own delegated authority.”