Contractors employed by the housebuilder have been digging up land west of Lathro Meadows adjacent to the A922 over the course of the last week, leading to claims by householders that JCBs and dumper trucks have left mounds of earth beside people’s houses and worked throughout the weekend.

The move resulted in Perth and Kinross Council issuing a temporary stop notice to the contractors earlier this week.

A resident, who wished to remain anonymous, has also claimed that the local authority is not adhering to its local development plan.

“Persimmon Homes do not have permission from the council to allow this kind of work to take place,” he told The Courier.

“This plan has met with a lot of opposition locally and many of us feel the information contained in a brochure issued by Persimmon Homes does not match the original plan.”

He added: “The proposal that the council looked at had buffer zones near my house but this brochure shows houses being built on this piece of land, which I’m not happy about at all.

“In addition, there are serious drainage issues with this site. Many residents are worried about silt coursing down into the nearby Loch Leven.

”Some people have had mounds of earth left near their gardens, which is awful.”

A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council confirmed they had been “made aware of the issue”.

“A temporary stop notice has been served,” she said.

Iain Innes, managing director at Persimmon Homes North Scotland, added: “We halted work immediately on our Lathro Meadows development in Kinross at the request of Perth and Kinross Council and we will continue to work alongside them to restart works as early as possible.

“The development will bring much-needed two, three, four and five bedroom homes to the town as well as affordable housing and we will recommence works on the council’s go ahead.”