Wednesday 19 September 2012

12.23 and the web cast was paused; I had to find out from the BBC!



Midday and not long back home after dashing out and I decided to have a quick look at the web cast of the PED meeting to see how far the Agenda had progressed.

The meeting was covering what seemed to be the end of Agenda Item 3 



3. Notice of Amendment (Planning) - Planning Application (09/00038/OUTIN)

Tornagrain New Town
(to review the decision on the planning application)



What Happened next?


A motion to uphold the previous decision of the South Planning Committee was proposed by Cllr Gray

An amendment was proposed by Cllr Crawford - essentially to delay permission until more details sorted out (had missed all prior discussion so hope this is correct take on amendment that was written out)


The Clerk explained the voting process, Press 1 for motion, 2 for amendment, 3 to abstain...

The votes were cast and the vote then closed at 12.23

The Clerk confirmed that the correct number of votes had been cast

The web cast was paused at 12.23 and has just returned at 12.36 with the words from the chair, possibly to the effect(only heard the words once and very suddenly as the web cast sprang back into life)

"...yes we are quorate so we don't need to worry about that..."(?)

The meeting then moved on to item 4, with an apology to the guest speaker for item 4

No doubt we will have to wait until something appears on line or in the press

The Inverness Courier has a page set up here

I expect that there will be a press release on the Highland Council home page here

Today's meeting web cast will be archived and then appear back in 24 hours or so on the page here

Update

12.51 And the BBC has the Scoop here

Extract from BBC on line


Highland councillors vote 17-3 in favour of  Tornagrain


A Highland Council committee has voted in favour of plans for a new town that caused a row at an earlier meeting.
Last month, Highland Council's south planning applications committee approved the 4,960-home proposal without the matter going to a vote.
Officers told councillors that there were no sound legal grounds to oppose the plan for Tornagrain, near Nairn.
The planning, environment and development committee voted 17 to three in favour of the project.
The project has already been approved in the Highland-wide development plan.


Next Tranche of major consultation announced...



...better start getting prepared now


The Government's 'Planning and Building News' arrived yesterday and I bet you cannot guess what is planned?

Well, according to the Newsletter:


Planning Minister Derek Mackay outlined a major review of Scottish Planning Policy and the programme for delivery of Scotland's third National Planning Framework

In a statement to Parliament, Mr Mackay stressed the importance of the planning system in creating sustainable economic growth for Scotland.

And he announced a programme of engagement on the National Planning Framework (NPF) - which will set priorities for national development over the next 20 to 30 years - as well as a review of Scottish Planning Policy, to spell out how that vision will be delivered.

As part of the review of the NPF Mr Mackay launched a call for Candidate National Developments to be considered for inclusion in the final document. The selected developments must make a significant contribution to Scotland's sustainable economic growth and be of national, rather than regional, significance.

Mr Mackay stressed he wants everyone with an interest in the future of Scotland to be able to have a say in developing the national framework and launched online the Participation Statement which set out how people can get involved

In terms of the Third NPF

The NPF can designate “national developments”, which are in the national interest.  14 were identified in NPF2.  The following criteria will be used to evaluate proposals for national development status: 

Proposal Form (word version) is provided for interested parties to use to suggest  projects which are deliverable, and which they consider to be nationally important.  Proposal forms should also be submitted for the existing national developments, should those taking them forward feel that they will also be relevant to NPF3.  Completed forms should be returned by Friday December 14, 2012.

In terms of Scottish Planning Policy - SPP:


The intended timescale for the review is:
  • Autumn 2012  
Announcement & Call for Ideas
  • Winter 2012/13 
Pre-draft engagement & drafting
  • Spring 2013
Publish Draft SPP & consultation
  • Summer 2013  
Analyse responses & re-drafting
  • Before end 2013 
Publish finalised SPP