One of Scotland’s top businessmen will this week make a last ditch bid to rescue plans for a £100 million Perthshire holiday resort.
Stephen Leckie, boss at the luxury Crieff Hydro hotel, believes the project will create scores of jobs and pump around £25 million into the Scottish economy each year.
But the plan was rejected by Perth and Kinross Council earlier this summer. Officials told Mr Leckie that crucial information on air quality had not been submitted to planners on time — even though such a report had apparently already been sent to the council’s environmental health department.
On Tuesday, Mr Leckie, who is chairman of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, will challenge the ruling at a meeting of the council’s local review body.
Agents acting for the Crieff Hydro company have lodged a 1,000-page defence, arguing that the council threw out the scheme on a simple technicality.
The Crieff East scheme, which was first mooted three-and-a-half years ago for land near Gilmerton, aims to build 200 holiday lodges, a 100-bed care home and assisted living accommodation for another 100 people, as well as leisure facilities.
In Crieff Hyrdo Ltd’s submission, a spokesman said: “The application has essentially been refused on the sole grounds of lack of information on air quality.
“This delegated decision by the planning authority was entirely unexpected by the applicant and is, furthermore, considered to be unreasonable.”
He said that an air quality report was sent to the council’s environmental health officer (EHO). It was thought this would be rubber-stamped by the officer, before being passed to the planning department.
“We had understood this was an acceptable approach,” said the company’s spokesman.
“Although planning officers were aware of the above and that the applicant was on the cusp of obtaining the agreement of the EHO on this issue, with the findings of the report indicating a positive outcome, they still decided to refuse this application under delegated powers.
“The planning authority knew the information on this remaining issue was on its way and was positive in terms of its results.
“On this basis, we consider that the approach the officers took was unreasonable and unfair, not least given the significant time and investment that the applicant has put into this project.”
Following the decision in July, a council spokeswoman stated: “The expectation from national government is that local authorities will determine major applications within 16 weeks wherever possible.
“The council has made repeated requests and given ample time for the relevant information to be provided. This was not forthcoming and the agents were subsequently advised of our intention to refuse the application on that basis.”
Hydro boss angered by council decision
Crieff Hydro chief executive Stephen Leckie has said Perth and Kinross Council is not sending out the right signals to attract tourists to the area.
He said he could not understand why the council could not wait “a few days” for the environmental report to be finalised.
Mr Leckie, who was unavailable for comment this weekend, said previously: “I am shocked and appalled by this decision and find it disrespectful that this was done under delegated powers.”
He added: “From an economic point of view, it’s disappointing. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into the application over the years and have always worked hard to promote growth, only for the council to put it (the application) out on a whim with no word to us.
“We’re all aware this has been dragging on, but the whole point of outline planning permission is to give us areas to focus on and time to gather more information.”
The council’s delegated report of the Crieff East plan states: “Given the timescales this application has been on hold and the fact that deadlines for the submission of information have been missed, the planning manager has instructed that the application should now be concluded.”
NHS Tayside and the Perth and Kinross Community Health Partnership had objected to the proposal, raising concerns about its potential impact on other care and support services.
The East Strathearn Community Council has also raised concerns about the scale of the development and its impact on local businesses.
