Plan will change the face of Perth

Aug 22 2008 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Plan will change the face of Perth

AMBITIOUS, long-term proposals to transform the face of Perth’s north-western environs are now in the public domain.

An outline planning application driven by a Glasgow-based consortium under the name of Perth City West LLP has been lodged with Perth and Kinross Council to create a mixed development on the Perth Mart site at Huntingtower.

Perth’s centuries-old role as a centre for the farming community was dealt a fatal blow in June when United Auctions announced it was closing its Perth Mart and agricultural centre next year to consolidate its operations at a new auction market currently under construction in Stirling.

Despite calls for a re-think on the future of Perth Mart, just two months after the closure announcement the outline plans for the site’s redevelopment were lodged this week.

Perth City West LLP indicate the 11 hectare site will be redeveloped into a supermarket, petrol filling station, cinema, gym and other leisure facilities, hot food outlets, specialised housing, public open space and pedestrian boulevard.

There is no indication of the number of houses proposed for the site, but an additional 1201 parking spaces are proposed. Trees on the site will also be affected.

A support statement for the application indicates the Auction Mart development is just one piece of a much larger jigsaw for an area termed the “Western Arc” – extending eastwards from the A85 Crieff Road to the A9 north of Inveralmond, and including a new road bridge over the River Tay.

It states: “This significant development in Perth will be led by the Perth City West LLP – a joint venture between two leading entrepreneurs, Kenneth Ross, chairman and chief executive of Elphinstone Holdings Ltd, and Scottish financier David Hunter of Hunter Capital Partners.”

The bigger picture of Perth City West’s jigsaw also includes local landowners the Ritchie family, who own Huntingtower Farm.

This broader masterplan context proposes “a series of villages”, a new country park across the River Tay and further commercial and retail expansion along the A85.

The main elements of the landscape redesign are:

The creation of ‘Bertha Park’ on 400 acres of land to the north of the River Almond and west of the A9 Perth-Inverness road, transforming the farmland into a series of villages “which share common facilities within a landscape setting”. Two primary schools, a secondary school, local shops and health facilities are mooted for the Bertha Park site.

A fourth crossing over the River Tay which links into a new country park and visitor amenity near Perth Racecourse.

At Inveralmond the developers propose to “build upon the success of the industrial park, however buffeting it from the neighbouring Huntingtower settlement by a small residential settlement.”

Retail and commercial expansion on the A85.

The additional communities which the developers envisage will, states the masterplan, “be linked back to Perth’s existing fabric by eco ducts”.

No timescale is indicated for Perth City West’s entire ‘Western Arc’ proposals.

“We believe there could be a positive determination of this outline planning application early in 2009,” concludes the development statement.