Stirling Council has refused planning applications for two adjoining housing proposals for up to 500 houses on a site at the western edge of Cowie.

Although the sites are allocated in the adopted Local Development Plan, agreement could not be reached with the proposed developers to provide education contributions in line with adopted education contributions which are outlined in the Supplementary Guidance.

It was deemed by the council’s Planning and Regulation Panel that the developments would not provide fair and reasonable contributions proportionate to the scale and nature of the developments with regards to contributions to school capacities.

Planning and Regulation Panel chair, Councillor Alasdair MacPherson, said: “It is very clear that Planning Panel members were not convinced by the cases made by the applicants’ agents and unanimously supported the officer recommendations to refuse both applications.”

The applications were initially brought before the Planning and Regulation Panel meeting on April 13, where the decision was deferred pending a site visit and a hearing.

Previous consultations focussed on the suitability of the houses for the community, the impact they could have on access to affordable housing and the affect they would have on schools and roads in the area.

Developers Taylor Wimpey said they will “carefully consider” how it can progress the development in the future.

Pauline Mills, land and planning director for Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, said: “We are disappointed to learn that our planning permission in principle application for up to 433 new homes as part of our masterplan vision for land at Berryhills, Cowie has been unsuccessful.

“As well as new homes, our proposals included plans for a nature park, formal public open spaces, community areas and links to the existing community of Cowie. Our applications to Stirling Council followed an extensive public consultation process where we took the opportunity to positively engage with the local community and other key stakeholders as we developed our proposals for our emerging scheme.

“Berryhills was allocated for new housing in Stirling Council’s Local Development Plan which was adopted in September 2014, and therefore we will carefully consider our next steps in order to understand how we might deliver a masterplan that we believe will bring positive benefits to the local area.”