Listen to the locals on planning concerns

Sir, – I see that A & J Stephen have employed the tired old trick by developers of submitting a controversial and highly unpopular planning application knowing that most community councils take a break at this time of the year (Company lodges plans for phase one of 700-home development, The Courier, December 14).

People have festivities and holidays to plan and enjoy and do not want to be bothered with planning matters.

This was completely predictable. I am not being a NIMBY as my objections to this development have been based on the lack of a bypass, so once a bypass has actually been constructed, then many arguments against any further development in Scone/Balbeggie/ Burrelton/Guldtown will fall.

My main concerns are that currently, the school is all but full as is the medical centre. The Scone infrastructure cannot cope with this sort of increase in population.

The traffic congestion and pollution at Bridgend and into Atholl Street is among the worst in Scotland. And has nobody noticed all the small new proposed developments in Balbeggie, Guildtown, Scone and Gannochy?

Furthermore, I and others also have doubts over whether or not anybody living in Scone, or even Balbeggie and working in Perth, will bother to use the bypass anyway. It will not be used by the increasing number of Perth commuters to Dundee, Fife and all points south towards Edinburgh.

Wildlife and woodland will be destroyed but nobody really cares, do they? It’s all about money, profit and the ruination of quality of life.

I also have severe doubts that the SNP’s declaration that local decisions should be governed by local people will actually have any meaning at all. It’s just another political soundbite.

John D Ridley. Spoutwells Drive, Scone.