Our November agenda has been updated to include an item on the Sunnylaw land sale.
We became aware of this land auction, with a date set for December 7th, only last week. We have made enquiries to establish that the land is in private ownership.
The area is a well used and appreciated green and open space for recreation. In discussion with local elected members and neighboring residents we are looking into all options to retain this public amenity space. We have contacted the seller and sought advice from community land scotland regarding potentially registering a Community Right to Buy.
sunnylaw
Key Questions 1. Who maintains this at the moment.
2. Who would maintain it if it was purchased by the Community and how much would it cost annually ?
My understanding is that this is Open Space in terms of the Local Plan.
The land has been maintained by the council as they do in other areas, but no more, due to their cut backs they will no longer cut grass on land they don’t own. So the community will have to work out a maintenance plan. Yes it is currently public amenity land in planning terms.
The field was originally part of the Westerton Estate. I thought that the land had been gifted to the local community?
If that is not the case, why have Stirling Council been using Council Tax money to cut the grass and maintain it?
I would also like to know what’s happening with Sunnylaw Road. Does anyone know when (or if) the road will reopen? The road has been in a terrible state for a long time prior to closure. It will need a considerable amount of money for repairs (ideally resurfacing) before it reopens.
Perhaps the money spent on maintaining the plot of land that is for sale should have been used for resurfacing the road a long time ago instead of maintaining what is alleged to be private land!
Who currently maintains this area (grass cutting etc) given that it is private land and not council owned? And what would the ramifications of a Community Buyout be in regard to this?
Hopefully not yet another task for Friends of Bridge of Allan…..
Currently maintained by Stirling Council on a “grace and favour basis”
What ever happens the Council will cease cutting the grass next April as a budgetary saving
MJW
Unfortunately during the Airthrey Kerse debate at the appeal it became apparent that the local councils including Stirling were under pressure to make land available for development. Bridge of Allan’s boundaries are well defined either by green belt, river and railway. This means that every green area within the tow boundaries are open to development. From experience the land at Sunnylaw has no protection to prevent development unless some underlying reason can be found.
The auction price seemed very low presumably because it would be unlikely to get planning permission, but that must be a future risk if a speculator bought it and sat on it for a few years and let the ground turn into an eyesore waste land so that few would object to it being developed as may happen with Blairforkie.
If a community buyout could be arranged that would prevent this. I have a friend who was in a similar situation a few years back – the developer gave them the land as long as they undertook to maintain it. Its about 1/2 acre and 5 people took it on and pay about £200 between them to have the grass cut. I’m sure we could get enough ( say 50) local people to agree to take it on for a annual maintenance fee of about £1000. Problem would be if Developer wants paid for the land as well.