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Park of Keir is a lovely bit of woodland in the green belt between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane.
Yesterday the Scottish Government announced that they had given approval to planning permission for the area to become luxury housing and a 6-hole golf course to keep the plebs away.
The supposed community benefits are minimal at best - 20% towards a publicly funded sports facility for rich kids (access is off the motorway). The current tennis academy at Stirling Uni is under-utilised and readily accessible by all.
Stirling Council rejected the initial application but the Scottish Government determined it to be in the national interest and have ridden rough-shod over local residents.
I am scunnered.
Aye, another fine example of serious poor decision making - despite the rejections from so many areas (local residents, local user groups, local council, local MSPs, etc.).
Seriously poor result.
One rule for us and another for politician's pals.
(Gated) housing for rich toffs, with room for more in phase 2.
The loss of greenbelt spacing between two towns.
The loss of recreation and environmental buffer space, including SSSI's that border the development.
A 'national standard' tennis and golf centre - with 6 holes, a few courts and ignoring the National Tennis Centre and Olympic sports programmes based out of the uni less than 2 miles away.
A hotel to compete with the many other hotels already in the area, but overlooking the Motorway.
A junction that is struggling with traffic already, let alone additional local and national traffic into a side road.
1200+ objections, the largest public 'against' in any planning in Scotland).
Local Planners recommendation has been 'no' for over 4(?) years now.
News snuck out quietly on a day when other news is bigger and the Scottish Government web monkey is heading home for Christmas early so the documents are not easy to get hold of.
(Yes, Judy Murray is being paid to be the head of this, but it is a business deal. She herself has written press articles objecting to greenbelt developments and poor sporting facilities these last few years, while championing this one. She has blocked myself and many others on Twitter.)
It. Absolutely. Stinks.
Welcome to the future (or present), there was enough overruling whilst it was still regional, now you have an even higher appeal to use with less legislation in the way, you can see the reason why they want it located there, it suits a central, easy to get to location for the tennis/golf and the ambassadors who will be around like the Murray's and Colin Montgomerie, but it's all about profit for the developers and a total loss of greenbelt.
It also appears to be different to the picture above, now they seem to be sticking the centres nearer the road, and the rest is earmarked for the housing i'd guess, wonder now it's through if they amend the number of houses and so on, always happens
(Gated) housing
Could have a right giggle with some welding gear late one night.
It'll be completely changed...same sort of mince is going on with the quarry at Cambusbarron - another local place with huge levels of local opposition but keeps getting overruled so they can get in and destroy a local habitat for red squirrel and some giant sequoia trees (admittedly those aren't native, but with the wild fires in the US just now the worldwide stock of these are being checked to allow replanting and growing - won't help once those are removed though).
We do seem to be doing very well in this area to demonstrate that money can overturn any negative decision if you pay enough to the right place.
Isn't Scotland meant to be some SNP-run socialist utopia?! Wouldn't shock me in England, but I thought Scotland was better than that...
They're all the bloody same.
I'm not on an expert on golf course design, but isn't it traditional to have 9 or 18 holes? And usually not have a large separation between the two halves of course?
Almost like they're trying to create a really shite golf course that has the short term benefit of creating inaccessible green space, but can be used for housing later when it fails due to who the hell in their right mind joins a 6 hole golf course?!
6? I can see 7, and the greens appear to be numbered upto 9 (with 2 out of shot??)
But yes, another vote here for welding the gates shut!
Isn’t Scotland meant to be some SNP-run socialist utopia?! Wouldn’t shock me in England, but I thought Scotland was better than that…
They’re all the bloody same.
Sorry your vision has been ruptured. The SNP and democracy are mutually exclusive.
Countdown to the fanbois defending Sturgeon & co....
If it’s an academy golf centre those holes will be about practice, rather than rounds, they’ll head off to other courses for that.
But, there’s always land around that could be used, they now have a start.
They claim it's a six hole course, but as neither 6 or 7 hole courses are a thing it doesn't really matter. Like building a world class aquatics centres, except with it has a 13 yard pool with a 3.7m diving board. From the Boris Johnson school of world beating boosterism.
Tbh there's been talk for ages about a Barry Hearn style rework of Golf, as it takes too bloddy long anyway, 5 or 6 hours at the weekend, there would be a lot of interest in shorter courses.
Sorry your vision has been ruptured. SNP and democracy are mutually exclusive
That's just silly, while we're miles from perfect up here, you'll get dodgy bastards in council planning whatever colour hat they wear. I've no idea who runs this area though.
The more I read about this the more annoyed I get. Even more considering how hammered Cambusbarron is likely to get with both the Larch disease on the hill, the quarry access road (which has started) and then subsequent re-activation...oh and the new housing estate at the Polmaise Road side. Jesus wept.
The mind boggles at where the priority lies with these things, and that the views of locals just seem to count for nothing. Particularly with Park of Keir, there is no wider community benefit at all that I can see aside from upper class housing and recreation for an exclusive minority.
You lot are to blame, always going on about how awesome the place is! 🙂
They’re all the bloody same
Yes, yes they are in some ways.
That’s just silly, while we’re miles from perfect up here, you’ll get dodgy bastards in council planning whatever colour hat they wear. I’ve no idea who runs this area though.
In this case, our Stirling Council Planners have been really thorough and even handed in my view. The challenge started when the Council had to refer to our Government for a ministerial decision.....Basically local planning is over turned, against stated advice of the planners and views of the locals, by the Scottish Government.
Particularly with Park of Keir, there is no wider community benefit at all that I can see aside from upper class housing and recreation for an exclusive minority.
Indeed - it is a totemic project of wider planning challenges.
Just don't tell most of Dunblane and BofA population that Anne Gloag owns most of the surrounding land, and it is within development plans already - around 400 houses due around Dunblane. I bet as and when work starts on Park of Keir they will start on Gamekeepers Wood, which will trigger the new M-way junction as well at Keir (this according to Scotland's most senior road engineer)
...you’ll get dodgy bastards in council planning whatever colour hat they wear...
BBC are reporting that Scottish Government overruled the council:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-59742106
...which aligns with what the OP told us in the first place:
...Yesterday the Scottish Government announced that they had given approval to planning permission for the area to become luxury housing and a 6-hole golf course...Stirling Council rejected the initial application but the Scottish Government determined it to be in the national interest and have ridden rough-shod over local residents...
You lot are to blame, always going on about how awesome the place is!
It is.
Still has ar*eh*les living here.
You lot are to blame, always going on about how awesome the place is!
It'll still be awesome, just ever so slightly less so than before 🙂
How utterly depressing that is. But not in the least bit surprised; the country is littered with similar stories of sheiks, oligarchs, gangsters and corporations bulldozing their way through the planning system.
a11y
Full Member
You lot are to blame, always going on about how awesome the place is!It’ll still be awesome, just ever so slightly less so than before 🙂
One less wooded place for the locals to drink buckfast and shoot up some skag in ;o)
I will also point out: Judy Murray has been a willing, paid propaganda mouthpiece for this project. She has claimed all along it is a legacy for Jamie and Andy - and yet also admits a couple of courts and a few photo's don't a world class legacy make. She refuses to admit that a mile up the road are the facilities that launched the boys - a community owned and run tennis club in Dunblane.
She has written articles in the press about loss of greenspace and communities needing voices over planning, is a champion for grassroots tennis and sport in general. Yet supports a greenbelt development, objected to en-masse locally, that will be less accessible and more costly than the other local facilities. Talk about two-faced.
Colin Montgomerie had the sense to jump ship after the first planning hearings - when he heard the local voice and saw issues.
Judy (who doesn't even live locally any more!) has taken the money and asked too few questions.
Yeah, just over 10 miles away you have Gleneagles Golf Academy, which has two full championship courses, world class practice facilities and state of the art indoor facilities. It also has the real estate to expand this if it was necessary.
There are more facilities like this around Scotland, so not sure why the golf part of this is actually a thing, can understand tennis with the Murrays around Dunblane, but as you say, Judy Murray has been championing this stuff around the UK and not sure if this will actually do more than be another tennis training facility, just like the hundred others.
But, with permission now given, it's a gold mine for luxury housing, like it or not, no matter who's in power, the people who run big corporations and business will pretty much get their way.
One less wooded place for the locals to drink buckfast and shoot up some skag in ;o)
Park of Keir drinking den:
Right, we're far enough in, break out the MD20/20 and who's got the skins ;o)
(-:
It's really sad news I've often walked from Dunblane to Bridge of Allan and Cambusbarron is a great place for biking. I suggest we leave the gates alone and use a tig welder on the genitalia of whichever scoundrels passed this utterly unworthy scheme.
use a tig welder on the genitalia of whichever scoundrels passed this utterly unworthy scheme.
IMO, it goes right to the top and Nicola and others have some sticky questions over the next few days while the press get to work.
Oh wait.
It is a national holiday.
That won't happen.
I cannot imagine why they announced it just now.🤔
As Matt says.
Nicola is rumoured to have a house on the Old Glen Rd (Judy Murray's old house too!), and there has to be brown envelopes and back-scratching involved
The 6-hole golf course is just a buffer zone to keep the plebs away from the houses.
Is there a connection to Keir house over the M9 or has the money trail been hidden?
No connection to Stirling family at Keir House.
Going to need a shoehorn at the High School. It's getting tight up there already in terms of numbers
Aye, Judy Murray has been giving brown envelopes tae wee Nic, right ye are. 😆😆😆
And I thought old firm fans were paranoid!
Wikipedia says Keir house was sold by the Stirling family in 1975 to UAE businessman Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir.
Gone beyond the Stirling Advertiser...
Sir Andy Murray Museum 🤣
Judy Murray has won an eight-year planning battle to build the £40m tennis and golf complex on the outskirts of Dunblane she says will stand as a fitting legacy for her sons, tennis stars Andy and Jamie
What about Duncan?
£40m tennis and golf centre - dodgy headline....
Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir
Same Tahir who is riding roughshod over access in and around his 'ghost' golf course next to Gleneagles?
Who would be the relevant MSP to moan to?
Same Tahir who is riding roughshod over access in and around his ‘ghost’ golf course next to Gleneagles?
Same with Keir House.
I see the newspapers have done bugger all research, it seems the Times have pitched it as a win for little Judy against the planners and Anne Gloag...
Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir: Same Tahir who is riding roughshod over access in and around his ‘ghost’ golf course next to Gleneagles?
Yes - also owns Highland Spring.
Park of Keir
The Guardian article is reassuring in that the Dunblane CC say this has a long way to go yet.
No one penny of public money should go towards the sports facilities - the university has an Institute of Sport offering under-utilised golf and tennis facilities for local youngesters with easy access (my son cycled to the gym there last night with his friends).
I noticed the local MSP was dead against it, quoted in the Guardian article.
So, who to moan to within the SNP? 😎
Annoyed that both areas had been on my list to explore, will need to get around to it quicker! Is access to tracks and trails around Keir House a problem?
I noticed the local MSP was dead against it, quoted in the Guardian article.
Mark our MSP may stick his nose into this thread, he is STW member....
Is access to tracks and trails around Keir House a problem?
I have had two negative experiences on the estate - once just exploring when we first moved here, and fair enough I was probably too close to the main house trying to see if tracks connected alongside the motorway. I have also run into a grumpy driver of a quad bike as I connected what is marked as old military road / ice house woods on the maps over to Row. That said, I have done it in reverse before and you can connect to local dog walker paths to the houses at Biggins.
Their neighbours over at Row are equally awkward - they having blocked an access track under guise of being 'in' a garden - yet there didn't used to be a garden - and this used to make a nice loop on foot or bike.
Mark Ruskell (Green) is a regional MSP - and cycles.
He is obviously seriously unimpressed that the Scottish SNP Government have done this during a so-called coallition with the Green party,
Constituency MSPs are Keith Brown (SNP, Dunblane) and Evelyn Tweed (SNP, Stirling).
I will be writing to them asking why their party over-rode their consituents.
I will be writing to them asking why their party over-rode their consituents.
Again. Have they learned nothing from the Trump/Menie debacle?
I also see that Stirling Council are silent - only a couple of 'we note the decision' statements. I get the feeling they too are properly upset at a high level, I will be writing to our councillors to ask for an opinion from them on it.
Aye, Judy Murray has been giving brown envelopes tae wee Nic, right ye are.
I know! Who'd imagine it eh? Next thing you know people will be suggesting that Sturgeon kept quiet about the misbehaviour of her boss, putting her party's agenda ahead of the safety of Scottish government staff! Don't they know she's a protected species of politician, one that can never be criticised!