Residents in the Carse of Gowrie fear the loss of one of the last open spaces in their village if plans for the site are upheld on appeal.
Council planners have already rejected an application from Morris Leslie to create a commercial vehicle parking and open storage area on the southern edge of Grange, near Errol.
However, the company has already begun some work at the site, including bringing down a number of poplar trees.
The plot of land at Gourdiehill is popular with dogwalkers and local residents but a locked gate has been erected at the entrance from the main road, raising fears they will be denied access in the future.
Half a dozen formal complaints were lodged with Perth and Kinross Council, including from Errol’s community council, and the retrospective permission request was refused in the spring.
Morris Leslie has now taken its plans for the development, which includes a “distribution centre” for an unspecified company, to the council’s local review body (LRB).
The appeal panel has postponed a decision until a site visit can go ahead but it is expected to make a decision early in the new year.
Gary Kinniburgh, who stays nearby, says as many as 20 trucks at a time can be parked on land at the far end of the site and he is worried that the HGVs will move closer to his home.
He said: “Open spaces should be protected. The site isn’t all zoned for commercial use.
“We can already hear engines idling at 5.30am, which is annoying, but it would be a worry if it got closer.
“If permission was granted, it would undermine the planning process and suggest it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.”
The developers said they didn’t know swathes of the site were earmarked for open space when they started work.
A Morris Leslie spokesperson said: “The site is partly allocated for mixed use development and is partly identified as open space. The part open space zoning was not appreciated to exist when work started on site.
“It is true that some trees were felled. However, the existing trees are of a species and age where they need to be replaced and there is a replanting programme with new replacement trees proposed.
“There is a company that would like to base themselves on the site and use it as a logistics base. That is as much detail as can be provided at this point in time.”
Carse of Gowrie Labour councillor Alasdair Bailey said: “It’s always concerning when work starts ahead of planning permission being obtained, particularly in this case, when that has resulted in a loss of plants which will take time to grow back if the permission isn’t granted.”
