Great happenings at Dunblane

You know, I was delighted to read the other day that Dunblane has been recognised by developers as a suitable case for treatment and an opportunity area for enormous swathes of profit-making projects that will expand the settlement over former agricultural land.  Leading the charge to move Dunblane into the 21st Century is the redoubtable Ann Gloag OBE, one of Scotland's greatest businesswomen.

Speaking as an expert planner, the principal development sites at Striling Road and Hillside, and at Anchorscross seem to be entirely natural enlergements of Dunblane. It's a bigger building envelope of course but it contains a fabulous letter of intent for hungry housebuilders and others who are ready to step up to the plate of profit.

The site at Anchorscross is an absolute gem. It has a great view of the road to Aberdeen which is incredibly important and presents an opportunity to bring development closer to the lovely Stirlingshire landscape which is currently too far away for people with visual impairments to see properly. I should say that it will have great views once a considerable number of trees have been felled but this won't be a problem - this will also make the site more visible which is a major bonus. You can imagine in future years, the happy residents of the Anchorscross Estate waving to the traffic on the Aberdeen road providing much needed interaction between drivers and local community.

I haven't seen any artist's impressions of the Anchorscross development but I'm sure it wil be excellent in every way. In any case, hardly anything is refused planning permission these days as developers go into the final phases of their battle with local authority planners - who are now on the back foot as they try to answer legitimate claims that they have been throttling the UK economy and are the enemies of enterprise.

The development at Stirling Road and Hillside is a splendid roll-out of all the best things that the dynamic property development industry can offer - a new supermarket, housing, community facilities, public amenity space, public services use and associated works. It's a well intentioned development that contains so much for the people of Dunblane.

Typically the people of Dunblane and especially people who will be living next to the new developments are unable to see the benefits of change as they are too mired in their selfish bourgeois me-first attitudes, filling their wine refrigerators and polishing their BMWs. It's a great shame that they cannot see the light.

I urge the local community to accept these fabulous developments and I congratulate everyone involved in these projects - a gold star in my little black book.