Construction crews have started work on a new £1 billion village on the outskirts of Perth.
The 3,000-home Bertha Park development represents the city’s biggest expansion in a generation.
Councillors gathered at the rural Inveralmond site for a historic sod-cutting ceremony on Tuesday morning. The work is being spearheaded by Springfield Properties, which secured planning consent for its masterplan last year.
Work on the 800-acre site will continue for the next 30 years, creating around 450 construction jobs.
And it is estimated that Bertha Park, featuring 60 acres of commercial land — shops, offices and restaurants — will generate work for around 2,000 people.
It will also be home to the first brand new secondary school in Scotland for more than 20 years.
Springfield Properties chairman Sandy Adam said: “This is a really exciting time for Springfield and for Perth.
“Designing any development takes a lot of work from the builders and respective councils. Bertha Park is a result of five years work with Perth and Kinross Council who have been supportive and encouraging throughout the planning stage.”
Mr Adam said: “We are now installing the main drainage and services infrastructure for the first phase of homes and we will be opening our sales office in September.”
He said a 3D scale model is being created to put into the context the first phase of more than 1,000 properties. House-hunters will also have access to interactive floor plans, showing the range of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes available.
A new road is being built to unlock land at Bertha Park and relieve traffic congestion.
It is part of a wider scheme which also involves the creation of an A9/A85 junction and the Cross Tay Link Road, which will connect the A9 near McDiarmid Park with the A93, north of Scone.
Speaking at the ground-cutting ceremony, council boss Ian Campbell said: “I am delighted that the development of Bertha Park is now under way.
“The project will offer people an excellent living environment in good quality housing.”
He said: “Perth and Kinross Council is fully committed to ensuring the success of this development by continuing to build additional capacity into the new and existing infrastructure in the surrounding area.
“I am confident that the intensive programme of works planned will deliver the essential components to create a modern, thriving community here at Bertha Park. It will also provide additional support to Perth and Kinross as a whole, realising its ambitions for the future and further developing the already extremely positive signs that the local authority area is viewed across the board, as a growing and developing region.”
