Friday 8 January 2010

A revised application for New Town Tornagrain?

A brief thought occurred to APTSec; if the applicants are proposing to develop the Inverness Airport Business Park over a 50 year period this takes us to 2061. The developments for the A96 Corridor were supposed to take place in several phases, with the 'last' being from 2036-2041 - well beyond any statutory plan period and set of reliable population statistics on which to assess need.
The current planning application for the New Town runs to 2046, with a few 'extra' houses thrown in.

What do you think are the odds that an updated application for the New Town could be submitted extending the development period (to about the same as that of the airport 2061) spreading out the build rate and/or increasing the numbers of units?

"People cannot beat Mother Nature"

"As the past few weeks' events show, our transport system remains vulnerable to bad weather. It does not take much to knock our networks out of action."

Huw Morris, Planning Daily

Full item here

Keep up to date with latest on salt supplies and school opening

APTSec has been checking The Highland Council web pages as regularly as possible.

For the latest news releases, particularly on schools and weather go to the bottom of their home page

Tuesday 5 January 2010

17 days continous working...

Councillor John Laing, Chairman of the Transport Environmental and Community Services has been paying tribute to those who have worked hard over this period of difficult weather conditions, he said:

"... many snow clearing staff had worked 17 days continuously to tackle the disruption caused by a combination of heavy snow and sub-zero conditions, while many home care workers had gone beyond the call of duty to maintain services to older and vulnerable people by walking miles to get through to the homes of clients."

My father worked for 51 years for British Rail, firing steam engines or driving locomotives at all hours of the day and night, in all weathers. I don't think we should take for granted the people who, often times, work the unsocial hours to make sure that we can all get where we need to go. Of course this is not to forget the many other occupations where workers need to work unsocial hours such as heath service professionals and police officers.

(Please feel free to add to the list of those you feel need recognition.)

Mr Laing also recognised the role of members of the public who have cared for others. The full item is here.

An update on how the council is coping can be found here

Use land more efficiently says CPRE

Planning Daily reports that Fiona Howie, head of planning and regions for CPRE, said:

"With a population that is expected to continue to grow we have to use land more efficiently."

"We need to build more homes, especially affordable housing, but we also need to devote space on our densely populated island to producing food and energy, while still allowing people to access and enjoy open and unspoilt countryside.

"Planning for housing is fraught with uncertainties. Current projections fail to take adequate account of wider considerations, such as changing economic conditions and the effect these can have on migration levels."

TO read the item click here

Housing the Future: An analysis of the Government’s household projections and their use in planning for housing is available here.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England web site is here

'Just Space'

A new site from South of the Border called 'Just Space' which describes itself as:

"This site has been created to encourage and assist Londoners and their organisations – especially those working for a more just and sustainable London – in influencing the Plan. It contains summary information on what the Plan contains, the main concerns and how you can respond. You can see work in progress on responses, challenges and objections to the London Plan."

The 'one minute' key issue section looks at issues such as employment, housing and open space - with play areas.

Further information here

Yet another site dedicated to encouraging people to take an interest in the planning issues that will have such a huge impact on their lives.

Sunday 3 January 2010

Should economic objectives overide the social and environmental?

A View from 'south of the border':

"The Kate Barker review of land use planning in England will have a dramatic impact on the way we shape the future of our communities. Despite the radical restructuring of planning which began in 2005, her interim report heralds the beginning of a further major program of reform and deregulation. But the analysis in the report is based on a flawed understanding of the purpose of planning and lacks both a rigorous evidence base and a coherent analytical approach. Consequently, its key ideas threaten changes to planning which would damage the UK’s economy, environment and democratic process

Friends of the Earth is deeply concerned that the final Barker Report will form part of a calculated web of other policy documents, including the Energy Review and the Eddington Transport Study, whose proposals will prioritise narrow and short-term economic objectives, will marginalise the voice of communities and will compromise the planning system’s ability to deliver other vital public policy objectives.
"

For the full article click here

Land ownership; the SLP view - 1976

I wonder if 0.1 % of the population of the HIDB area + Perthshire stills owns 64% of the land.

Click here for the source material