Report shows Bannockburn proposals to be ’unacceptable’

The report, prepared for the Trust by Glasgow-based landscape planning specialist Douglas Harman, has been submitted to the Scottish Government-appointed Reporter. The Reporter is reviewing the application and the Council’s approval of it following a public outcry.

The proposed trotting track, car parking, fencing, and buildings in green fields adjacent to the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre and parkland managed and cared for by the Trust would be directly visible from the Rotunda, which acts as a national monument to commemorate the 1314 battle that changed the course of Scottish history. Stirling Council approved the application in July despite many objections, and it was subsequently ‘called in’ by Scottish Ministers.

The report concludes that:

• No Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment was submitted with the application.
• The failure to provide an assessment of the effects of proposals on the surrounding landscape was a ‘fundamental omission’.
• The photos provided by the applicant to demonstrate how the facilities would appear once constructed ‘do not conform to relevant guidance’ and were misleading, unreliable and ‘fundamentally flawed’.
• The applicant’s assessment of landscape and visual impact, such as it was, was ‘not fit for purpose’.
• There are flaws too in the Council planning department’s handling of the application, thanks to a failure to ‘provide a comprehensive analysis’ of the relevant material ‘considerations’ and ‘overreliance’ on the information provided in the applicant’s submission.

Douglas Harman, a highly experienced Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute, concluded: ‘Given the large number of policy conflicts, there is no doubt that the proposed development is unacceptable in landscape and visual terms.

‘In determining the application, therefore, paramount importance should be afforded to the protection of this nationally important landscape.’

‘It’s more than a matter of protecting green fields: they are the location of the first day’s combat at Bannockburn on 23 June 1314 and are not just historically and nationally significant but also form a core part of the setting and topography of the wider landscape that dictated the course of the battle.

‘Many thousands of visitors each year come to the battlefield centre and the Rotunda to experience something of the fateful events that shaped our nation’s destiny. There is no doubt that the proposals, should they go ahead, would be wholly disruptive and compromise yet another part of the historic battlefield. It’s perhaps understandable why the applicant might want to play that down – but the Council’s assessment should have picked that up.

‘We have respectfully submitted the report to the Scottish Reporter and we hope that it provides helpful information as part of the review of Stirling Council’s decision that is now underway.’