A housing development on Kinnoull Hill would destroy the tranquil atmosphere enjoyed by people who go to a Perth monastery for retreats, objectors to the plan have claimed.
The Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park Group has set out its opposition to the proposal by CALA to build 19 detached two-storey houses on a site to the east of St Mary’s Monastery, Hatton Road, in a document lodged with the council.
Chairman Norman Refrew says, “The group opposes the development of the monastery field on a number of grounds in relation to the public enjoyment of the park, the potentially deleterious effect on a valued landscape and also to the wider public policy issues affecting it.
“Although physically outside the boundaries of the Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park, the application site materially affects it, lying as it does adjacent to its boundary and alongside Hatton Road, one of the principal access routes for visitors.”
The site is owned by a Roman Catholic order known as the Redemptorists, who built the monastery in the 1860s. They now run courses in spirituality, promising “the tranquil atmosphere of St Mary’s, with its spacious grounds overlooking the beautiful city of Perth, make it a place of rest.”
The objectors feel this atmosphere will be compromised by the development, which the monastery maintains is necessary to raise funds for refurbishment.
“The provision of religious retreats and courses is a competitive business and there are other establishments in Scotland and further afield offering them,” the objectors state. “It strikes us as an important aspect of the ‘retreat’ market that the surrounding environment should be sympathetic to the need for peace and tranquillity.
“We make this point because the consequence of developing the land to the east of St Mary’s Monastery would be that instead of a pastoral outlook over grazing sheep to the mature woodland edge of the park, visitors would gaze directly into a housing estate which, because of the sloping nature of the site, would stand at or above the level of the monastery itself.
“Such an outlook is not generally considered to be conducive to peaceful seclusion… The proposed development would therefore have the unintended effect of weakening the appeal of the monastery’s location for the conduct of its business.”
In conclusion the group states, “We do not find the case for setting aside existing planning policy persuasive and would underline that the quality of the landscape both on its own account and as the setting for the park and of the grade B listed monastery would be substantially degraded were this development given consent.
“The application site forms part of a designed landscape that has not received due recognition and should be conserved and celebrated. We are particularly concerned that a precedent should not be created of setting aside well-established policies for the protection of valuable landscapes and listed buildings on the basis of the financial needs of the owner of the site.
“We do not believe there is any overriding threat to the listed monastery buildings if this application is refused, whereas the result of the proposed development would be irreversible damage to their setting.
“The protection of this site, an important constituent of the Area of Great Landscape Value, is essential as opportunistic development would permanently erode the landscape of Kinnoull Hill to the detriment both of the park and the city as a whole, which rests its reputation on the slogan ‘the Fair City’. The application should be refused.”