IT WOULD SEEM that, far from being satisfied with the last lot of amendments, Stirling and Clackmannan councils have decided they must revise further their Structure Plan. For those of a nervous disposition, this is the stuff of nightmares, since the respective councils, allegedly, are looking for yet more land on which to build yet more houses. And we ain't talking brownfield sites - we're talking big, lush green ones and, depending on where you live of course, it could be one near you. In my case, there are a lot of big fields to the south of Blairlogie outwith the Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV) and, apparently, unprotected by any greenbelt designation - fields which have, so far, been left alone despite the best efforts of that great, altruistic double-act, Landowner and Developer. For how much longer, one wonders? (Most recently, this L&D team offered the land to Stirling Council for its Area of Major Growth - 2500 houses and concomitant infrastructure; mercifully, the council declined.)
Whether it be for windfarms, pylons, houses or whatever, our precious land is under pressure like never before, and it's going to get worse. I read in my paper recently a piece by Iain McMillan of CBI Scotland in which he said, among other things, that any political party which endorsed the introduction of third-party right of appeal on planning matters would be condemned by his organisation as "anti-business and working against Scotland's economic interest". When did you last hear rhetoric like that? Correct: George W on invading Iraq: "If you're not with us, you're against us!"
So, loins already well girded - for Ochils windfarm public inquiries and the looming pylon public inquiry - may have to remain in a state of girdedness to respond to this Structure Plan revision. At the risk of boring you to tears with all this kind of stuff, let me tell you a tale of how the residents of Blairlogie found themselves in conflict with big business over 40 years ago.
In the early 1960s, the Distillers' Company Limited (DCL) based in Menstrie concluded it was going to need more storage capacity. A lot more. What with a substantial increase in whisky production looming and the fact that the distillery and its adjacent bonded warehouses were already near to bursting with 60 million gallons of the cratur, the DCL directors authorised the necessary action to procure a site - one the firm had been eyeing up for some time, apparently. It was only two miles from the Menstrie operation (so the same staff, labour and Customs control could be used), it was on the main Alva-Stirling road (very important, since the great majority of whisky was transported by road), and it was flat (making for better handling, supervision and safety: in the event of a fire, a distiller's worst nightmare, blazing whisky couldn't run from one warehouse to another as it could on a sloping site - this had actually happened in Greenock during an air-raid in the last war). In short, to the DCL it was a must-have; to the residents of Blairlogie, it was Blairmains Farm (grid reference NS828964).
DCL approached Stirling County Council (the local planning authority at the time) to test its reaction to the proposal, which, initially, was not well received. Indeed, the council suggested several alternative sites which the DCL went through the motions of investigating: each was decreed inappropriate for one reason or another and, in the end, the company succeeded in convincing the council that Blairlogie was the only site suitable. Its last Development Plan having been approved by the Secretary of State in August 1962, Stirling County Council was now (May 1963) seeking to amend that plan in order to accommodate DCL's big idea. By a majority of nine to five, the amendment was allowed and duly advertised. Objections came in pretty thick and pretty fast, and leading the charge was the less than neatly named Logie and District Ratepayers' and Citizens' Association (LDRCA, a forerunner, by some distance, of Logie Community Council). This fine body had widespread support from many who lived furth of Blairlogie - people who, for various reasons, had a soft spot for the tiny, pretty and rather unique village. DCL had other ideas for it.
The company's intention was to buy Blairmains Farm, allow Jock Eadie to work it as tenant rather than owner (if he so chose) and, on 25 of its 180 acres, to erect eight detached warehouse blocks each measuring 300 feet by 300 feet, 30 feet high to the eaves and 38 feet to the roof ridge. These would be built in the big field immediately east of the farm and north of Gogar House (NS835964). Reading between the lines (as the objectors clearly did), there was nothing to suggest another eight blocks might not be applied for at a future date ... and then another eight... An attempt was made to allay the objectors' fears by offering to build the blocks 300 yards south of the Alva-Stirling road and to screen them with a belt of trees - a proposal which left Blairlogie's residents singularly unimpressed.
Stirling County Council submitted its Development Plan amendments to the Secretary of State and a public local inquiry was duly set up. The proponents comprised a mix of high heid yins from DCL, representatives from the Planning Committee and, tellingly, the assistant county clerk to lead their case - a lawyer certainly, but he was about to be severely outgunned. The opponents were members of the LDRCA, and leading them from the front was Mr Charles E Jauncey, QC. How come a wee place like Blairlogie could afford such high-level legal representation? Two reasons, really: (a) the whole thing was done and dusted in a couple of days, and (b) Mr Jauncey's mother (or was it aunt?) had lived in the village for several years before and up to the start of the war. A form of nepotism, I suppose. Anyway, the villagers won nae bother and DCL shrugged its collective shoulders and applied to build its warehouses down at Blackgrange.
So, if you want to see how these soulless blocks might have looked beside Blairlogie, consult your OS map and start anywhere round NS835947. And if you want to stand a chance of winning your case, then remortgage your house and get a QC.