Dunmore Pineapple plans for visitor centre and homes

The meeting will not be open to the public but will be available to watch online later.

The plan is to build a visitor centre beside the A-listed building – which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland – but developers say they will also need to build 22 new bungalows to fund the project.

The 7.62 hectare site is agricultural land within the carseland of the Forth, north-west of Airth village.

The Pineapple is an architectural folly, and is not open to the public, although visitors are welcome to explore the walled garden and woodland.

The applicant wants to build a single story visitor centre, with car and coach parking near The Pineapple, although this is not a National Trust for Scotland application.

It proposes that vehicles could enter the site via a new road junction

at the main A905 roadway.

The proposed housing – which developers say is necessary to fund the visitor centre and roads infrastructure- would be parallel to the A905, next to a recently approved development by Lochay Homes for 108 dwellings.

Airth Parish Community Council is in favour of the development which they say will bring much-needed facilities to the iconic building.

They also believe that building a new road will improve road safety at a dangerous junction.

However, they would like assurances that the visitor centre will be built by the time all the houses are finished and sold.

Falkirk Council’s planning department has recommended rejection of the plan as it involves building in the countryside but the decision will be taken by the members of the planning committee.

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