Heavyweights join battle to halt playground for rich

Published on Friday 21 August 2009 22:03

A FORMER adviser to Margaret Thatcher and a leading civil servant at the former Scottish Office have joined growing official protests against controversial plans to turn part of Perthshire into a £1.3 billion playground for the super rich.

Viscount Monckton and Professor Gavin McCrone – a former chief economic adviser to the Scottish Secretary – have been backed by more than 120 opponents from across Britain who have lodged official objections to the proposals for the massive development at the Dall Estate on the shores of Loch Rannoch.

The objectors include a former biology teacher at Dall House when it was used as a boarding school, the owners of several local tourism-related businesses and many regular visitors to the area.

One of the local opponents to the scheme, Rose La Terriere, who runs a self-catering business in Kinloch Rannoch, warned: "It would be a disaster."

Community and conservation groups in the Loch Rannoch area have already announced plans for a concerted campaign to persuade Perth and Kinross Council to reject proposals by Malcolm James, laird of the Dall Estate, to turn his land on the shores of the loch into the most exclusive holiday resort in Scotland.

The developers say the resort – with membership fees set at 2 million – would be without equal in terms of the facilities on offer and would provide a major boost to the local economy.

But Viscount Monckton, who lives in the hamlet of Rannoch, says in a letter to the council: "The development would

have a grievously detrimental environmental effect and would have an intrusive and unsightly visual impact for miles around."

He voices particular concern about the impact of the scheme on birds such as the golden eagle and peregrine falcon, and a rare species of giant dragonfly found in the area.

Viscount Monckton is scathing about some of the "ugly and unsuitable" buildings planned for the site, describing the "Broch" – a lochside restaurant development – as looking like a "crude power station cooling tower joined to the land by a steel and concrete causeway of calculatedly repellent design".

Prof McCrone, who recently voiced his concerns about the development in an article in The Scotsman, has lodged his official objections to the scheme.

In a letter to the council, the former civil servant, who once owned a house at Rannoch,

writes: "I have known Rannoch for over 60 years and been a frequent visitor there. It is an exceptional area of unspoilt beauty and much of the south side of the loch is a national scenic area, with the Black Wood being a site of special scientific interest and a European site of major conservation importance.

"The development now proposed is quite disproportionate. It would drastically change the character of the south side of the loch, affecting its quality as an area of conservation."