Almost 250 people packed out a Highland Perthshire hall to debate the future of their town centre this week.
Pitlochry Conservation Society (PCS) held an open meeting to determine public opinion following the latest bid to transform premises on Atholl Road by Aviemore’s Upland Developments.
Previous attempts to begin work in the tourist town have foundered, with plans being withdrawn before they could even be discussed by the council’s development control committee.
Although the most recent designs claim to show a more ”appropriate” frontage for the proposed hotel and supermarket complex on the site of Bank House and the former Baker’s Oven, locals remain unsatisfied.
PCS chairman Jim Tyrrell said he had been overwhelmed by the number who turned out on Tuesday night. He told The Courier the ”majority” of those in attendance rejected the revised blueprints for the conservation area.
”There was much derision and even a little amusement at the town hall,” he said. ”About 250 dropped by and the resounding majority voted firmly against the proposals on an instant post-it note vote.
”It was quite a sight to see the ‘against’ board filled with yellow bits of paper and the ‘for’ side almost empty. It is frustrating that previous polls have been continually ignored. We hope for better this time.”
He continued: ”The drawings were generally well presented, but a few did cause raised eyebrows by the methods employed to diminish the enormous scale of the development for such a small conserved area.”
He added: ”The main building, a 52-bedroom basic hotel, above a probable supermarket has hardly changed since its first presentation three years ago.
”This massive building is still too large for the site, has little to offer in architectural innovation, and will still dominate, and totally degrade, the tourist attractiveness of Pitlochry town centre.
”Essential walkways through a new square, suggested by a PCS study, have also been ignored.”
Mr Tyrrell added: ”How many times do they the concerned people of Pitlochry have to tell Upland that they do not want this overdevelopment?”
The agents, Archial, stated in the application: ”The former Bakers Oven bakery at 60-74 Atholl Road is little more than a utilitarian shed. We believe that, on balance, this building has a neutral to negative effect on the conservation area and we would therefore propose its replacement with a more sensitively-designed building, with the opportunity to reinforce and enhance the frontage to Atholl Road.”
Referring to both Bank House and the bakery, the architects said the buildings had ”come to the end of their economic viability”.