Scotland on Sunday

It is one of Scotland's most historic towns but with a Soviet-style centre that has clearly seen better times. Stenhousemuir, near Falkirk, is now most famous for its toffee factory, its lower division football club and an ugly shopping precinct from the glory days of brutalist concrete architecture. But in a dispute that could become a test case for town centres throughout the country, Stenhousemuir is at the centre of an extraordinary row between planners and the Scottish Executive's architectural watchdogs over redeveloping its neglected heart. The council will be asked this week to approve a £15m plan to knock parts of the centre down and largely replace it with an Asda supermarket and a 350-space car park. Planners believe it will bring jobs and prosperity as well as transforming Stenhousemuir's economic fortunes.