Highland Spring bottled water is available throughout the UK and beyond. In fact, British Airways literally carries it around the world for in-flight refreshment, and it has become a global brand.

Highland Spring water, from the beautiful Ochil Hills in Perthshire, Scotland, is bottled in “the village of Blackford nestled below … the Ochil Hills”, according to a description on their website that conjures up a picture of rural tranquillity.

Now, Highland Spring is proposing to build their own rail freight terminal more than 100 metres from their factory, across the main road through the village, in order to transport an anticipated increasing output by rail rather than adding to HGV traffic on the roads. That may sound commendable – except that the freight terminal is to be situated in a narrow area of largely greenfield land bordered on one side by the railway and on the other by residential housing and the main part of the village (see photograph). The terminal will occupy the entire length of the field from the proposed entrance, within metres of the primary school building, to the narrowing strip at the right hand edge of the picture. Principal operations –shunting trains, crane movements and loading/unloading – will be carried out within sight and earshot of the nearest houses but are likely to be seen and heard throughout the village.

If Highland Spring is allowed to “shoehorn” heavy industry into such a narrow and inappropriate area, the village of Blackford would instead “nestle” right up against a freight development planned to include a 17m high x 20m wide gantry crane running on crane tracks built above existing ground level, up to 132 freight containers stacked 2-high, rail track to allow loading and unloading of 20-wagon goods trains and parking for up to 15 HGVs.

The village will be transformed from rural idyll to industrial complex.

Highland Spring’s somewhat sanitised visualisations of the proposed development can be viewed here:  Link to visualisations

Highland Spring insist that they need their own ‘doorstep facility’, yet a major international rail freight terminal will shortly be available less than 45 miles away near Glasgow.

The village of Blackford, its residents and local wildlife would suffer disturbance from:

• noise of crane motors
• containers clanging together and against the ground
• diesel locomotives powering up, and shunting with screeching brakes
• HGV engines and reversing sirens
• endless ferrying of containers between factory and terminal close to the primary school
• light pollution through hours of darkness.

The crane would be operational 6 days a week, from 6am-10pm Mondays-Fridays, and 8am-5pm or 4pm on Saturdays or Sundays, but containers will be shunted back and forth between the terminal and the factory 24 hours a day. Then after 2 years, the plan is to operate the full site including the crane 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Blackford would no longer be rural or tranquil. The village, surrounded by stunning, natural visual and recreational amenity would be blighted forever.

Wildlife, including roe deer, red squirrels, otters, small mammals and birds of prey, would be driven away from this meadow area and nearby braes and pinewoods. There is even a contingency plan to discharge effluent from onsite toilets directly into the Allan Water, which borders the right hand edge of the site, and in which children often play!

Heavy industry is utterly incongruous in a village setting, particularly in such close proximity to residential properties. Blackford would become a blemish on this beautiful area of rural Perthshire.

There is an obvious solution, which would also drastically reduce the growing number of HGVs currently using the main street - something that Highland Spring professes to be concerned about. Space exists for an exit slip road from the northbound carriageway of the A9, which could drop directly into land adjacent to the Highland Spring factory. This would remove from the main street all HGVs approaching from the south; and as all departing HGVs currently exit to the north and use the Gleneagles flyover to turn south if necessary, Highland Spring traffic through Blackford would be restricted to HGVs approaching from the north.

That is the only way to reduce HGV traffic through Blackford and safeguard the village environment. It may be expensive, but Highland Spring should add it to the costs of expansion!

Please say NO to Highland Spring ruining our village and environment - tell them to build the slip road and use existing rail freight facilities instead.