Praise for homes plan protesters
A councillor this week paid tribute to people from the area who campaigned against the controversial Airthrey Kerse development.
Scottish Ministers last week refused the plans for a second time, although Graham’s The Family Dairy still has another month in which to lodge an appeal to the Court of Session against that decision.
Bridge of Allan and Dunblane Tory councillor Douglas Dodds was part of the campaign against the 600-home development prior to being elected and when he was chair of Bridge of Allan Community Council.
He was also one of those who appeared at the original planning meeting to speak against the proposal. This week he paid tribute to the efforts of objectors who had researched and campaigned at every stage of the issue, specifically thanking Bridge of Allan resident, Duncan McDougall.
“I hope there is no further appeal to this decision although I suspect that may be wishful thinking,” said Councillor Dodds.
“It has taken far too long but we finally have a decision and that should be an end to it. Without the tenacity and dedication to detail of a few individuals, we may have been in a very different place.
“There was a huge amount of work done by people like Mr McDougall to research the details of the application and provide robust evidence to challenge many claims made in it.”
At the beginning of this year, the Court of Session ruled the Scottish Government’s appeal reporter should rethink their recommendations on the development.
The move came after Graham’s won their case against the Scottish Government, which in June 2018 refused planning permission in principle for the firm’s controversial development for 600 homes on the site between Causewayhead and Bridge of Allan.
The company want to use money made from the development, which includes plans for 150 affordable homes, a new primary school and public park, to bankroll a proposed £20million dairy plant at Craigforth.
Among the arguments put by Graham’s – in partnership with Mactaggart and Mickel Homes – had been that Scottish Ministers had failed to give proper consideration to a housing shortfall in the LDP and the case was returned to the Scottish Government’s planning and environmental appeals division to be reconsidered in light of the court opinion.
In a fresh decision issued last week, however, Scottish Ministers backed the planning reporter’s latest decision to refuse.
Graham’s are said to be reviewing their options, describing the reporter’s decision as “finely balanced” and their site as “one of the very few deliverable locations remaining for new housing in Stirling”.