CONTROVERSIAL plans by Judy Murray to create a multi-million pound tennis and golf centre look set to be scrapped.
The development, at Park of Keir in Dunblane, has faced fierce opposition from local residents, and officials at Stirling Council have now recommended that the planning application be refused.
The final fate of the proposals - which are also backed by golfer Colin Montgomerie - will be decided at a planning meeting on Tuesday.
Alston Birnie, of the Park of Keir Partnership, said the developers were "very sad" and "disappointed" at the recommendation from the planners, but vowed to keep fighting until next week's meeting.
He said: "The final decision was always going to be made by councillors and we’re sure Stirling councillors want the same things that we do.
"They want the best possible facilities for young people to get them active in, and help them develop a love of playing sports.
"If the last week has taught us anything, it has shown that we need to invest more, and more wisely to turn around the decline in people playing tennis.
"All we’re looking for is fair consideration of the proposals and the right decision to be taken for the right reasons.
"These proposals obviously hang in the balance, and we will keep fighting and setting out the facts right up to the planning meeting."
The plans for the development include indoor and outdoor tennis and golf centres, as well as luxury homes and a hotel and leisure facility.
However, opponents are upset that it will be built on greenbelt land.
Following the release of the planning report, campaign group No Housing on Park of Keir posted a message on Facebook saying the decision was "fantastic news".
However, the Park of Keir Partnership claimed that the "time is now" to build on the success of Davis Cup champions Jamie and Andy Murray and argued that the project would be a positive step for tennis throughout the whole of Scotland.
This is the second time the partnership has submitted an application - the first being rejected - and Ms Murray has said she will walk away from the proposals if they are not given the green light this time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel