Battle for Bannockburn: New assault launched to overturn horse racetrack approval

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) also criticised Stirling Council’s assessment of the proposals in giving a green light to the application, which has been “called in” by the Scottish Government for assessment.

The Scottish Harness Racing Club wants to establish a track along with parking, toilets, a bar and hot food takeaway on the opposite side of Fairhill Road from the NTS’s Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre on the southern edge of Stirling.

A report commissioned by NTS and published on Monday sought to highlight flaws in the proposals that made them “unacceptable” for the historic site where Robert the Bruce led the defeat of Edward II’s troops in 1314.

NTS director of conservation and policy Stuart Brooks said: “The report supports our contention that this is the wrong application in the wrong place with the wrong decision by Stirling Council.”

The study, by Glasgow-based landscape planner Douglas Harman, has been submitted to the Scottish Government-appointed Reporter, who is reviewing the application and its approval by the council in July, despite objections.

It said no landscape and visual impact assessment was submitted with the application, while the failure to provide an assessment of the effects of the proposals on the surrounding landscape was a “fundamental omission”.

The report said photos of how the development would look “do not conform to relevant guidance” and were misleading, unreliable and “fundamentally flawed”.

It also said there were flaws in the council’s handling of the application because it failed to provide a “comprehensive analysis” and relied too much on information from the club.

Mr Harman said: “Given the large number of policy conflicts, there is no doubt that the proposed development is unacceptable in landscape and visual terms. In determining the application therefore, paramount importance should be afforded to the protection of this nationally-important landscape.”

Mr Brooks said: “It’s more than a matter of protecting green fields - they are the location of the first day’s combat at Bannockburn, and are not just historically and nationally significant, but also form a core part of the setting and topography of the wider landscape that dictated the course of the battle.

“There is no doubt that the proposals, should they go ahead, would be wholly disruptive and compromise yet another part of the historic battlefield.”

Tony Pollard, professor of conflict history and archaeology at the University Of Glasgow, told The Scotsman: “I have not seen the original application in its entirety nor the report commissioned by the NTS, but the findings of the latter at the very least suggest this controversial planning decision was made on the basis of inadequate information.

“The battle was a key episode in Scotland's history and it will reflect badly on us if we are prepared to give up ground over which war horses might well have charged for a trotting track.

“Bannockburn is not the best preserved battlefield in Scotland, but that is all the more reason to preserve those elements of the undeveloped landscape which do survive.”

A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “The application has been called in by the Scottish Government and we are currently engaged in this process. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

The Scottish Harness Racing Club has been contacted for comment.