Council Blog gives info on this weeks IMF LDP consultation events

Extract from page here where more details and a chance to comment is provided:




This week the consultation events for the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan -Main Issues Report starts. From 2:30-18:30 there will exhibitions in the following locations:

16th April - Croy Public Hall

17th April - Ardersier Old School Hall

18th April - The Pavillion, Muir of Ord

19th April - Dores Village Hall

There will be evening workshops in these towns towns and villages . if you would like to attend the evening workshop please give us a call on 01463 702261.

One week gone and only 11 weeks to go

Doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself!


I have just realised that a precious week has slipped by and I have not as yet put pen to paper on the IMF LDP.


Only 11  weeks to go yes?

Just the one then for the South Planning Committee

The South Planning Committee are off to Acharacle for a site visit and thence to the Shielbridge Hall Acharacle to determine an  application for a distillery:

Item 3.1

Applicant:  Adelphi Distillery Ltd (12/00017/FUL) (PLS-31-12 (2231kb pdf))
Location: East of Glenmore River, Glenbeg, Ardnamurchan
Nature of Development: Development of a distillery, associated maltings, warehousing and visitor centre.
Recommendation:  Grant

More here

Interesting and varied agenda for the North Planning Applications Committee

There certainly seems to be a very varied programme for the North Planning Applications Committee; items to be discussed on Tuesday 17 April include:


Location: Land at Cromarty Firth Industrial Park, Invergordon
Nature of Development: Erection of Residual Waste to Energy Combined Heat and Power Plant with Ancillary Development 
Recommendation:  Review the Council’s Position in relation to the Reasons for Refusal.


5.1   Applicant:   Caithness Power Limited  (10/03501/FUL) (PLN-030-12 (1064kb pdf))
Location: Land SE of Houstry, Upper Smerral, Latheron, Caithness
Nature of Development: Installation and Operation of 4 x 80 m Wind Turbines 
Recommendation:  Refuse.


5.4   Applicant:   The Highland Council (11/04722/FUL) (PLN-033-12 (1806kb pdf))
Location: Sconser Pier, Sconser 
Nature of Development: New Ferry Terminal Including Waiting Room and Office, Parking/Marshalling Area and Bus Lay-By  
Recommendation:  Grant.

5.5   Applicant:   Highland Council  (12/00221/FUL) (PLN-034-12 (662kb pdf))
Location: Car Park 1, Clyde Street, Invergordon
Nature of Development: Erection of Public Toilet
Recommendation:  Grant.

5.6   Applicant:   Cromarty Tennis and Sports Club (12/00503/FUL) (PLN-035-12 (337kb pdf))
Location: Victoria Park, Cromarty
Nature of Development: Formation of All-Weather Tennis Court
Recommendation:  Grant.

Other items include the installation of Artworks in Invergordon, the temporary siting of Fire station buildings in Achnasheen and  a single turbine on the Isle of Sky.

Council Elections: HC advises Postal Vote Deadlines loom

From THC press release dated today:

Voters are reminded of the deadline for both registering to vote and applying to vote by post in the forthcoming Highland Council elections on 3 May.

Applications for a postal vote must be received by 5 pm on Wednesday 18 April. The deadline for registration is midnight on the same day. 

To be able to vote in the elections, voters must be 18 or over on 3 May 2012 and must be registered to vote ie feature on the electoral roll for the Highlands. The electorate for the Council elections currently stands at 175,979.

Interesting electorate currently stands at 175,979 

Contacting the election candidates; Friday 13th update

A short but pleasant email response from Scottish Lib Dems' HQ today who have offered to 


"...circulate (my details) by email to all our candidates in the Highlands."


A few more purple highlights on the candidate list then.


Come on SNP you are lagging behind the other major parties now with respect to responding to my request for assistance!


Extra brownie points here too SLD HQ has just let me know that my request has been sent out.

Highland Council Elections 2012; progress so far on seeking views

Further to my last post I thought I would update readers with respect to my search for local election candidates views on planning matters and most especially encouraging community involvement in planning.


One of the most obvious tasks was to print out the list of candidates (list only provides the candidates home addresses) from the Highland Council web site.  You may or may not be surprised to read that there are some 170 Candidates across Highland competing for 80 positions.


Then armed with the list and a selection of coloured highlighter pens the job of attempting to contact the candidates began in earnest.  To contact candidates by post would have been prohibitively expensive so email seemed the most cost effective option.


I had already managed to email all the current Highland Councillors; I had realised  that not all were seeking re-election but I thought I would give the outgoing councillors the chance to send a brief, 'planning farewell' if they were so minded.  Bright green highlights then denoted 'existing councillors contacted' .


Then I contacted some candidates directly where I was able; names now highlighted in bright pink.


I then set about contacting the main political party offices.  


Full marks to the worker at the party office of the Scottish Conservative and Unionists for being friendly, polite and gently helpful; agreeing to forward a message to their Highland candidates and keeping me updated of the progress of my request.  This site also gets full marks for having a telephone number for me to call and a personal email supplied for me to contact with further details after my phone call.


Next came the polite efficiency of the Labour Party Office - although I did have to call directory Enquiries for a number first and there was no 'Enquiry Form' option on the web site.  However all the Scottish Lab Candidates in Highland should be getting an email from me via the main Scottish Labour party office.


Lots of bright purple highlights now against the Conservative and Labour candidates denoting candidates being contacted via party offices.


I have left messages on the SNP, Scottish Lib Dems and the Scottish Green Party web sites enquiry forms requesting assistance.  I have also sent an email to the info address on the Scottish Christian Party Site.  


I am making strenuous efforts to contact the All Scotland Pensioners Party and the Scottish Anti-cuts Coalition.  


I hope to be able to highlight the above mentioned parties candidates names in purple soon.  Fingers Crossed.


I am setting about addressing envelopes to get in touch with the independents and other candidates that I cannot find email addresses for.


I hope that this all falls into place by the weekend and all the comments can then start flooding in.


Wish me luck.

May Elections, Candidates views on planning issues sought

I have received communications from a few individuals recently, who, given their experiences of the democratic process – in part with respect to matters related to planning - have decided to put themselves forward as candidates for election to the Highland Council.   Sadly their experiences of the planning system, as for many of us who support the aims of APT, seem not to have been positive.

How important is it, in your view, that councillors should take an active part in planning for their area?

I would be very interested to learn:

 How important you think it is for Elected Members to the  Council to encourage and support, influential, open and transparent public involvement within the planning system?

Are you (or do you know someone who is) standing as a candidate in the forthcoming local elections.   According to the campaign literature, will you / they be making planning issues  important features of a pre-election campaign?

I I would like to feature candidates views on local democracy and planning on this blog between now and the elections in May so feel free to send details and put up comments.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM HIGHLAND PLANING DEPT

This is where it all gets very interesting.  Highland Council Planning informs us:

...The Highland-wide Local Development Plan was adopted on 5 April 2012 and supersedes the General Policies and other related material of this Local Plan. A Parliamentary Order has been made to retain other elements within the Local Plans listed below. This provides the necessary clarity about which parts of the Local Plans continue in force alongside the Highland-wide Local Development Plan until such time as the relevant Area Local Development Plans is adopted. A full schedule of the retained elements of the following plans are contained within Appendix 7 of the HwLDP. Click here to view or download the updated version of Appendix 7 (pdf 617kb).

When using the following adopted Local Plans these must be read in conjunction with the Highland-wide Local Development Plan.

Visit the Local Plan pages for each Area via the links below:

• Badenoch and Strathspey
• Caithness
• Inverness
• Nairnshire
• Ross and Cromarty East
• Sutherland
• Wester Ross
• West Highland and Islands

The above is an extract from THC web page at link here

Appendix 7 - Retention Schedule here

What does this mean in practice? Here is one view from 'Dundas and Wilson' 

Inner Moray Firth Plan - first round consultation starts today!

"The Highland Council is producing a new style local development plan for the Inner Moray Firth. The Plan area covers from Tain round to Nairn, as far south as the Cairngorms National Park boundary and Fort Augustus, and as far west as Strathconon and Garve."

"On the 5th April the Highland Council launches a public consultation on the Main Issues Report which will be used to inform the preparation of the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan.  This consultation will last for 12 weeks.  

The Main Issues Report sets out a number of initial options for where development should and should not occur within the Inner Moray Firth area and how to address a number of other issues affecting the area.  

The Main Issues Report includes a number of sites submitted for consideration by communities, landowners and developers during the Council’s “Call for Sites” undertaken in early 2011."

Please see the link  for details of the events that the council intends to hold.

Scottish Ministers give HwLDP final go-ahead

Details of this on the 'Development Planning in Highland' blog


The full post is at page here


Extract:


...We have now received a letter from the Scottish Ministers letting us know that they will not be issuing a direction to stop us from adopting the Highland-wide Local Development Plan, therefore The Highland Council can now adopt the plan.

You will be able to watch the meeting of The Highland Council where the Highland-wide Local Development Plan will be debated online from 10:30am on Thursday 5th April by visiting http://www.highland.gov.uk and clicking on Webcasting.

Council Election - Candidate Latest

From THC web page here

170 Candidates to contest 22 Council multi-member wards (29/03/12)

Lists of Candidates can be found here and there are a fair few new names on the lists

The breakdown of candidates is as follows: - Independent,  49;  Scottish National Party (SNP), 33;  Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, 22; Scottish Liberal Democrats, 18; Scottish Labour Party, 17; Scottish Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship, 9; Scottish Green Party, 4;  UK Independence Party, 3; the Labour and Co-operative Party, 2;  Scottish Liberal Democrat Focus Team, 2;  Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition, 2, All Scotland Pensioners Party, 1; No description,8.

13 sitting councillors are not seeking re-election. They are: -

Caithness (2):David Flear (Lib Dem), Landward Caithness;  Lady Thurso (Marion) (Lib Dem), Thurso.

Sutherland (1):William (Ian) Ross (Lib Dem), East Sutherland and Edderton

Ross (1):
Jean Urquhart (SNP), Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh.

Skye (1):  
John Laing (Ind), Eilean a´ Cheò.

Inverness (4):
Roy Pedersen (SNP), Inverness South;  Peter Corbett (Ind), Inverness Central;  John Finnie (SNP), Inverness Ness-side;  David Henderson (Lib Dem), Inverness Ness-side.

Nairn (1):Sandy Park (Ind), Nairn.

Badenoch and Strathspey (1):
Stuart Black (Lib Dem), Badenoch and Strathspey

Lochaber (2):  Michael Foxley (Lib Dem), Fort William and Ardnamurchan;  Donald Cameron (Independent Alliance Group),  Fort William and Ardnamurchan.

Council Election Latest -List of Candidates expected by 5pm today

According to Highland Council  - THC web Home Page - web link here

The deadline for nominations is 4pm today and we hope to publish the list of candidates standing for election by 5 pm.

Development Plan Examinations consultation and a mere 14 Pages

Well folks I was saving this consultation paper as my 'number one' of the five Scottish Government consultations I have been describing in the last few posts and have to admit now that I have read it over I am a little disappointed in its content.


This consultation document is a mere 14 pages long, and they are not all full pages. All in all the 'meat' of this consultation seems to be on only 4 pages and it asks only 4 questions with the fourth question being 'tucked away' in an 'Appendix C'.  Here are the 4 Questions

Question 1: How well do you think the examination process is functioning

and should any changes be made to the process at this stage?

Question 2: If you think changes are needed which option do you support,

and why?

Question 3: Are there other ways in which we might reduce the period taken

to complete the plan-making process without removing stakeholder

confidence?

Question 4: Do you think any of the options would have an impact on

particular sections of Scottish society?

The full report is at the link here 

Saying what we think; again.

Having posted a little on three of the five latest consultations from the Scottish Government, here is a little on what I'll call 'number four'.


This is a consultation on 'Miscellaneous Amendments on the Planning System'.  


The introduction to the document informs us that, 'The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on draft legislation for a number of refinements and amendments to the procedures on development management, schemes of delegation, local reviews and appeals.'

Matters covered in this consultation include:

The proposed removal of PAC
requirements in relation to Section 42 Applications.


Proposed changes to advertising requirements - Planning Applications/ Neighbour Notification

restrictions on the delegation of planning authority interest cases

A section which proposes a change to allow an extended period for
the determination of an application to be agreed upon between the applicant
and appointed person where local review procedures would apply.


Automatic deemed refusal on certain local review cases.


Amendments to Appeals Regulations.


Approval of matters specified in conditions (AMSC)



The proposed removal of the restrictions on the delegation of planning authority interest cases.

There are a total of questions asked in connection with this consultation on the matters as set out above and Question 12 is:

Are there are any issues in this consultation not covered by a specific question or any other aspects of the current planning legislation on which you would like to comment? 

If so, please elaborate.

An Answer to Question 12 at least should surely be worth considering and submitting.

Full details at the link here