One of Scotland’s "most prominent" Green Party politicians "condemned Judy Murray’s plans for a multi million pound tennis and golf centre in the countryside near Andy and Jamie’s home town of Dunblane," according to the the SCOTSMAN.
MSP Mark Ruskell said that the proposal -- for a 12-court indoor and outdoor tennis center, trainer golf course, "Murray" museum and country park, funded by 19 "millionaire-sized" homes and a 150-bedroom hotel, gym and spa -- was "not sustainable." Ruskell, who is also a local councilor for Dunblane and the neighboring town of Bridge of Allan, said that the tennis academy itself "may be a good idea but it is in completely the wrong location." The MSP, the Greens’ spokesperson on Climate, Energy, Environment, Food and Farming, said Judy’s plans would be "a permanent suburbanisation of a designed landscape which forms a strong part of the identity and sense of place of both Dunblane and Bridge of Allan." He said that neither would the proposal be "low carbon," with a hoped for 270,000 visitors a year, the vast majority coming by car. He added, "This proposal, in this location is inherently unsustainable; it does not reflect either existing or emerging policy and has at best a tenuous link with local sporting and economic ambitions." In an earlier exchange, objector’s solicitor Colin Innes "compared the planned Murray tennis centre to a Nazi prisoner of war camp" (SCOTSMAN, 9/13).
