Four councillors have called on a housing developer to ask it to progress plans to set up a community liaison group.
The four Kinross-shire ward councillors - Mike Barnacle, Callum Purves, Willie Robertson and Richard Watters - have all written a letter to the developers of Wesfield in Fife.
Plans are in place to transform a 423-hectare site on a former open cast mine in Fife into a major new industrial hub, including a solar energy park, waste recovery and recycling unit, light industrial units and agricultural greenhouses.
Despite the work being done out with the geographical boundaries of Perth and Kinross Council, heavy-goods vehicles to and from the site will be directed through the B9097, a rural road in Kinross-shire along the south side of Loch Leven.
This road has working farms, the RSPB Loch Leven, the Loch Leven Heritage Trail and a number of residential properties either crossing over or within metres of the B9097.
As a result, the group of Kinross-shire councillors have asked for a community liaison group in Kinross-shire to be set up.
It is hoped such a group would allow residents and businesses to be able to voice their concerns on the development’s impact on Kinross-shire and allow community engagement from an early stage of the development.
Cllr Callum Purves said: “I cannot understand why anyone would think that it was sensible to route hundreds of HGVs a day along a rural road that passes through a national nature reserve and alongside a heritage trail that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
“A community liaison group is a small ask of the developers from people who are going to have to put up with an awful lot in the future.
“But this group needs to be one where locals will be listened to and their views taken into account when decisions are made.
“It cannot simply be a talking shop that pays lip service to the community’s concerns.
“And it needs to start now.”
He continued: “There is a fundamental democratic deficit in the way that this planning decision has been reached.
“Fife, which will see many benefits from the proposal in terms of waste disposal and employment opportunities, determined the application, while Perth and Kinross, which will see only negative effects, did not.
“Kinross-shire should not have to put up with this level of increased HGV traffic.
“Local people also feel let down by the lacklustre formal comment that Perth and Kinross Council made on the application.
“It did not ask for many of the mitigation measures that will be needed.
“While a £100,000 road maintenance bond was secured, this will not go very far.
“I think that Perth and Kinross Council will soon need to look at funding some of these mitigation measures itself.”
The letter was sent to Philip Rayson from Hargreaves developers and Rob Watson from Brockwell Energy on Monday, March 18.
