Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 10:54am

Petition calls for Dollar Green Belt

by Jamie MacDonald

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RESIDENTS of Dollar are banding together in an attempt to protect the rural atmosphere of the village.

A petition has been started by members of Dollar Civic Trust who are concerned that Green Belt status has not, as yet, been afforded to the area.

Trust members say unlike other Hillfoots villages such as Alva, Menstrie and Tillicoultry, which have green belt status, both Dollar and Muckhart are vulnerable to large scale housing developments.

As Clackmannanshire Council prepares its development plan for the coming years the members of the trust have drawn up a petition they hope will galvanise support and persuade those at the authority to approve Green Belt status and protect the village in the future from urban sprawl.

Fiona Fisher, from the Trust, told the Advertiser there is a real concern that the nature of the village could be eroded.

She said, "The vultures are hovering. In plans for the area developers are saying the area around Dollar should be developed.

"Meanwhile, the streets are very congested and the quality of the town is suffering because of similar building programmes."

Members of the Trust are not 100 per cent confident in reassurances they have previously had from the local authority that the outskirts of Dollar is protected because the ground surrounding the town has been designated as agricultral land.

There are 300 members of Dollar Civic Trust and those behind the petition hope to gain 1000 signatures by 22 March, in time for the development plan review.

The petition may only be days old but already there are people from as far afield as Australia and Germany backing the campaign.

Ms Fisher added, "This is something we hope everyone in Dollar will consider and we will be sending out leaflets to our members.

"We don't want to tell people what to do, this is about raising the issue and we hope the interest is there to support it."

Dollar Civic Trust's website claims the group have already had a successful campaign to save the fields between Dollar and Lower Mains from a huge development and, despite many objections, recently failed to prevent Taylor Wimpey Group getting outline planning permission for houses at Lover's Loan - a popular walking area.

The petition can be found at the website www.gopetition.co.uk/online/34377.html