PLANS for a massive housing development to the west of Sauchie are set to be refused this week.

An application from Allan Water Developments – dating back around ten years – is expected to be rejected by councillors on Thursday.

The developer wants to build 1,000 homes on the land at Branshill Road after previously ripping up earlier proposals to build 774 homes and a new primary school.

The initial application was lodged in June 2010, but the latest plans from Allan Water Developments include extending Craigbank PS, rather than building a new school.

It is one of the reasons why Grant Baxter, principal planner for Clackmannanshire Council, has recommended to councillors that the application for planning permission in principle is refused.

In his report to the Planning Committee this Thursday, he stated: "The application proposals do not involve a new primary school on the site but an extension of Craigbank Primary School, the scale and nature of which is considered inadequate and which does not reasonably relate to the scale and nature of the development, nor its impact on the primary school estate.

"There is insufficient capacity in the existing primary educational estate to accommodate the proposed development, and the applicant has failed to provide adequate educational infrastructure commensurate with the scale of the proposed development nor to address deficiencies which would be a consequence of the development taking place."

He continued to state that there is "insufficient capacity in the existing secondary educational estate to accommodate the proposed development", and that the application does not have the required infrastructure to address this.

The application is also contrary to the Clackmannanshire Local Development Plan (LDP), adopted in 2015.

The site is allocated for 774 houses on the LDP, with the 1,000 homes planned by the developer significantly exceeding that figure.

The Planning Committee previously made a "minded to approve" decision on the initial application in October 2013. This decision required conclusion of a Section 75 Agreement, including a new primary school on the site and a developer contribution towards its construction.

In January 2014, Allan Water Development cited costs of remediating underground coal as cost prohibitive and submitted a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) for a development to consolidate ground by means of opencast coal extraction, back-filling and re-profiling.

They advised that the on-site school could not be delivered unless coal extraction is allowed.

Clackmannanshire Council's planning service advised that this application would be subject to a separate Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) planning application.

The planning application for open cast coal extraction was submitted in February 2015 but it was withdrawn shortly after submission due to the announcement that Longannet Power Station was to close.

After a period of further discussion, Allan Water made a "final" offer to the council with five key terms.

They insisted that they would provide £5million for single stream school on the site; they must be allowed to build the school; they must be allowed to build 250 homes before any contributions were made; they would be allowed to increase the site capacity to 1,000 homes; they would have no affordable housing obligations.

This application was rejected in November 2017 as it did not adequately meet the educational requirements of the development and had no affordable housing.

After the developer examined options for accommodating the development in the school estate without the need for a new school, they presented revised education proposals to serve the development.

These were predicated on allowing 1,000 houses to be built on site and focus on extending Craigbank Primary School rather than providing a new school on site.

These plans are now recommended for rejection by councillors on Thursday.