Developers behind plans to create a Judy Murray backed tennis centre near Dunblane have lodged an appeal after the project was refused planning permission.
Plans for the £37.5m pound purpose-built tennis and golf complex at Parks of Keir, which is also backed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Colin Montgomerie, were rejected by Stirling Council's Planning and Regulation Panel in December 2015.
An appeal against the decision was lodged with the Scottish Government by lawyers and consultants acting for the Park of Keir partnership on March 4.
A Scottish government reporter will now carry out a site inspection.
The proposed development, between Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, includes a dozen tennis courts, a small golf course with practice range and mini golf, a luxury hotel and 19 homes.
An excerpt of the appeal published on the BBC News website said: "We consider that the net economic and social benefits of the amended proposals are significant and considerably outweight any perceived local concerns over the scale or type of the enabling housing elements or any environmental impact of the proposed development.
"The development will provide a platform for the development of sporting talent, outreach to local schools and clubs, and high quality coaching at all levels.
"It will be a 'sporting destination', attractive to local people and visitors to the Stirling area and Scotland."
Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has said the new development would be a 'massive opportunity for the community, for sport and for the next generation'.
However, the plans received more than 1,000 objections and infuriated many local residents who opposed development on the Park of Keir greenfield site.
Mark Ruskell, Scottish Green Party councillor for Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, told the BBC that the appeal was 'not that surprising'.
He said: "It's obviously very disappointing because there was a democratic decision made to not include any housing on Park of Keir because of its landscape status and that's in our local plan.
"Those who objected and the council can put in their own submission in response to the 60 pages that the developers put in.
"I think there will be a strong response from the community."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here