Plans for a new community and leisure centre in Blairgowrie look set to be approved by councillors after years of delays.
Blairgowrie Recreation Centre on Beeches Road was initially meant to open in 2020.
But in 2019 the project controversially lost £3m from its budget, putting a halt on plans.
However, in October last year, £8.9m was put towards the project by Perth and Kinross Council – taking the total budget to £24m and moving the proposals forward.
Now the centre is set to go through the final stage of the planning process next week when councillors meet to discuss the project.
Planning officials at the local authority are recommending that the centre is given approval.
However, four locals have made representations to the council highlighting concerns including the height of the building, noise, privacy and the impact of the increased use of the playing fields.
If approved, the facility will be built on the campus of Blairgowrie High School, replacing the existing centre – which is set to be demolished.
The centre would include a replacement sports centre – featuring a six-lane, 25m swimming pool, four-court sports hall, gymnasium, dance studio, fitness suite, classroom, changing facilities and an external artificial sports pitch.
The pool centre would be the first of its kind in Scotland by being built to Passivhaus standard – meaning it would be energy efficient and designed to maintain an almost constant temperature.
Construction of the new building would be carried out in two phases and the current recreation centre would remain open to the public during the initial stages of development.
A total of 52 parking spaces would be available at the centre, including six accessible spaces and six for electric vehicles.
Five motorcycle spaces and 16 covered cycle spaces would also be installed.
The meeting of the planning committee takes place on Wednesday.
Conversation