Ayrshire wildlife could scupper plans for 'green' Barony eco-therapy park

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Ambitious plans for an eco-therapy ‘wellness park’ in the shadow of the Barony A-Frame near Auchinleck could be scuppered by the local wildlife, despite support from local groups.The developers of the Barony Wellness Park have made the natural surroundings of the site a major factor in their ambitious plans to utilise ‘a beautiful natural place to establish an Eco-therapy Wellness Park, providing active health and mental relaxation with spa, exercise, craft activities and amenities’.But it is that natural space that has led East Ayrshire Council planners to recommend that councillors refuse an application for planning permission in principle.In a report to be considered by the planning committee on Friday, planners state: “The implications of developing this re-wilded site, which is notable for its rare and threatened species is considered to raise concerns as to how this is to be accomplished without significant adverse harm to the local ecology of the area.” Despite the developer’s references to the natural state of the site, planners say that the application fails to demonstrate that it won’t have a ‘significantly detrimental impact on the amenity of the area’.They argue that the proposal would lead to a reduction in publicly available natural landscape of a ‘high ecological value’, that the redevelopment of a bing which is of ‘unknown composition and stability’ may lead to future issues, in turn ‘resulting in a greater level of destruction of the fragile surface of the bing’ and an increased loss of current habitats and biodiversity.Other issues taken into account are the removal of more recently established habitats, ‘insufficient information’ about protected species, including rare and threatened invertebrates, on