In case you were not aware of these items:
Planning Leaflet (objectors)
Planning Leaflet (applicants)
These seem to have been undated last September
Friday, 1 January 2010
Latest recycling service - not quite 'planning' but useful nonetheless
APTSec has just discovered this on The Highland Council web pages:
"Do you have an electrical item that’s lost its spark? By the end of January 2010 facilities will be in place at Recycling Centres across Highland to recycle all waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
Householders in Highland will be able to recycle any electrical item with a plug attached, or items operated by a battery. This includes everything from small items such as hairdryers, DVD players and battery operated toys to large items such as fridges, freezers, washing machines and televisions. It also includes fluorescent light tubes, standard light bulbs and energy efficient light bulbs.
Various containers will be on-site for the segregation of different types of WEEE, and trained site operatives will be on hand to assist, and ensure that items are placed in the correct containers. These facilities will help ensure that hazardous items are diverted from landfill and recyclable components are recovered."For full item click here
Council calls for patience during wintry weather
A somewhat belated post on this:
For full item click here
"The Highland Council’s Convener Councillor Sandy Park is calling for patience when it comes to clearing Highland roads and pavements.
Since the recent wintry conditions have started the Council’s entire fleet of 114 road, and 54 pavement gritters and over 200 winter maintenance staff have been working flat out within the Council’s gritting policy to keep roads clear.
Councillor Park said: “We have the longest road network of any Council within Scotland and as such it is simply not possible to treat every road at the same time. 14% of Scotland’s roads are maintained by The Highland Council and we are responsible for 4,200 miles (6,700km) of roads. We therefore grit roads under a priority system which targets roads based on their local importance."For full item click here
The Government's role in land use planning
"The primary responsibility for the operation of the planning system and service lies with local and national park authorities. They are best placed to make decisions about matters which affect their areas. But there can be some occasions when The Scottish Government will become involved in the planning application process. This circular explains the Government's role. "
Click here
Click here
The culture of planning
What do the Government planners think planning is about?
"Planning has an image of being a barrier to development: of having a culture that is too regulatory, too reactive, too slow and too technical.
The planning system manages development in the public interest. It is crucial to everyone's quality of life. To maximise it's impact it should be more efficient, more enabling, more facilitating and understandable to all.
High quality developments will make successful places that are attractive and efficient for residents, employers, visitors and which will contribute to the Scottish Government's core purpose of sustainable economic growth. The need for this focus is even more acute in the current economic climate"
Read more here
Now, what do we mean by public interest?
"Planning has an image of being a barrier to development: of having a culture that is too regulatory, too reactive, too slow and too technical.
The planning system manages development in the public interest. It is crucial to everyone's quality of life. To maximise it's impact it should be more efficient, more enabling, more facilitating and understandable to all.
High quality developments will make successful places that are attractive and efficient for residents, employers, visitors and which will contribute to the Scottish Government's core purpose of sustainable economic growth. The need for this focus is even more acute in the current economic climate"
Read more here
Now, what do we mean by public interest?
Saving money on fuel bills
Published on the Scottish Government web site on 28/12/09
"The Scottish Government is offering households free energy savings advice, access to cheaper energy tariffs and help to access all the benefits households are entitled to, through the £60 million Energy Assistance Package.
Households who call the free advice line - including families with young children, people on benefits and the elderly - can, if eligible, also be offered a range of free insulation and draft proofing measures as well as new heating systems.
Households who received help from the scheme in 2009 saved, on average, £780 on fuel bills.
The free phone advice line number is 0800 512 012 and is open all year round."
Did anyone see or hear any news items on this?
"The Scottish Government is offering households free energy savings advice, access to cheaper energy tariffs and help to access all the benefits households are entitled to, through the £60 million Energy Assistance Package.
Households who call the free advice line - including families with young children, people on benefits and the elderly - can, if eligible, also be offered a range of free insulation and draft proofing measures as well as new heating systems.
Households who received help from the scheme in 2009 saved, on average, £780 on fuel bills.
The free phone advice line number is 0800 512 012 and is open all year round."
Did anyone see or hear any news items on this?
Smiling politcians
So, just how many photographs of smiling politicians can you fit into one glossy brochure?
Click here to find out
One quick question:
If you live in Scotland but are not Scottish, do you have any say in writing the script?
Click here to find out
One quick question:
If you live in Scotland but are not Scottish, do you have any say in writing the script?
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Confused about renewables: part 3, Wind Farms
The pros and cons of using renewables; where do we find simple, straightforward information?
Take wind power for instance; what do you feel about that?
APTSec read that on one weekend in November 2009, high winds supplied 53% of Spain's electricity
Here are a few links to some otherrecent items on the net:
An interesting piece by Maltese Politician, Dr Pullicino Orlando
If you like your figures then this item by the BBC's 'Ethical Man' may shed some light
An item from 'Oregon Environmental News'
If you like all things 'green' then try this page on wind farms on a site named 'Web Ecoist'
Can you recommend any interesting information or sites?
How important is location?
APTSec is keen to hear your views.
Take wind power for instance; what do you feel about that?
APTSec read that on one weekend in November 2009, high winds supplied 53% of Spain's electricity
Here are a few links to some otherrecent items on the net:
An interesting piece by Maltese Politician, Dr Pullicino Orlando
If you like your figures then this item by the BBC's 'Ethical Man' may shed some light
An item from 'Oregon Environmental News'
If you like all things 'green' then try this page on wind farms on a site named 'Web Ecoist'
Can you recommend any interesting information or sites?
How important is location?
APTSec is keen to hear your views.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Warning, Warning! What is the point of Local Plan?
Over the last few years something that APTSec has become increasingly concerned about is, why do we have development plans?
Look at the Inverness Local Plan (ILP) for instance.
A draft of this plan was put out to a statutory period of 12 weeks of public consultation in 2001 and the draft garnered - so councillors were officially told in 2002 - some 800 responses covering 2000 issues. By 2003 the ILP was at 'Draft Deposit with Modifications' stage and the ILP was examined subsequently by Public Inquiry (April to July 2004). The ILP wasn't adopted until March 2006.
However sometime during this period of statutory consultation ideas were emerging through the Inverness City Vision, for the A96 Corridor in particular.
This non-statutory 2003 City Vision document is the only document that I have found which mentions the vast rate of growth planned for the area to the East of Inverness - 30,000 people to reside in a 'series of new communities'. Both the Highland Structure Plan and the Inverness Local Plan do mention the A96 Corridor, but not this level of growth and I would suggest to the reader that they do their own 'compare and contrast' exercise to see just what each of these documents say with respect to the A96 Corridor. (APTSec has already posted a few times on this blog regarding the details in these documents). There is certainly no clear signal in the ILP that there was an intention to prepare a master plan for the whole corridor; very specific detail as to the preparation of a master plan for the airport (click here and go to page 54) is shown in the ILP, but not for the Corridor.
The point here is that we now have a situation where a piece of non-statutory, so called 'supplementary guidance', the A96 Growth Corridor Development Framework' contains a central premise - that of a new town - which the applicants say the council decided to support in December 2004; that decision is now 5 years old! It certainly appears that the existing Adopted, 'been through a full Public Inquiry', ILP, had barely been examined by the Official Reporter in 2004 before it was "off with the statutory old' and 'on with the non-statutory new'
The non-statutory plan for the A96 now appears to form the bedrock for what is to become the latest proposed plan for Inverness and Nairn; I cannot believe that the new financial circumstances that the world finds itself in will not have an impact on the hugely unrealistic major development proposals for the A96 Corridor.
APTSec now has serious concerns that all the work and effort that has been put in over the last few years will come to nothing if we do not continue to press our case. Under the new Planning Act we are supposed to take an active interest in the planning system and take an active interest in development plans and their relationship to planning applications. It seems that what has emerged is that we were being invited onto a pitch in shabby kit and asked to play with our hands and feet tied. Now it seems that authorities, government and agencies are playing a different game altogether, and have left us to shamble around on the pitch
Look at the Inverness Local Plan (ILP) for instance.
A draft of this plan was put out to a statutory period of 12 weeks of public consultation in 2001 and the draft garnered - so councillors were officially told in 2002 - some 800 responses covering 2000 issues. By 2003 the ILP was at 'Draft Deposit with Modifications' stage and the ILP was examined subsequently by Public Inquiry (April to July 2004). The ILP wasn't adopted until March 2006.
However sometime during this period of statutory consultation ideas were emerging through the Inverness City Vision, for the A96 Corridor in particular.
This non-statutory 2003 City Vision document is the only document that I have found which mentions the vast rate of growth planned for the area to the East of Inverness - 30,000 people to reside in a 'series of new communities'. Both the Highland Structure Plan and the Inverness Local Plan do mention the A96 Corridor, but not this level of growth and I would suggest to the reader that they do their own 'compare and contrast' exercise to see just what each of these documents say with respect to the A96 Corridor. (APTSec has already posted a few times on this blog regarding the details in these documents). There is certainly no clear signal in the ILP that there was an intention to prepare a master plan for the whole corridor; very specific detail as to the preparation of a master plan for the airport (click here and go to page 54) is shown in the ILP, but not for the Corridor.
The point here is that we now have a situation where a piece of non-statutory, so called 'supplementary guidance', the A96 Growth Corridor Development Framework' contains a central premise - that of a new town - which the applicants say the council decided to support in December 2004; that decision is now 5 years old! It certainly appears that the existing Adopted, 'been through a full Public Inquiry', ILP, had barely been examined by the Official Reporter in 2004 before it was "off with the statutory old' and 'on with the non-statutory new'
The non-statutory plan for the A96 now appears to form the bedrock for what is to become the latest proposed plan for Inverness and Nairn; I cannot believe that the new financial circumstances that the world finds itself in will not have an impact on the hugely unrealistic major development proposals for the A96 Corridor.
APTSec now has serious concerns that all the work and effort that has been put in over the last few years will come to nothing if we do not continue to press our case. Under the new Planning Act we are supposed to take an active interest in the planning system and take an active interest in development plans and their relationship to planning applications. It seems that what has emerged is that we were being invited onto a pitch in shabby kit and asked to play with our hands and feet tied. Now it seems that authorities, government and agencies are playing a different game altogether, and have left us to shamble around on the pitch
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Private meetings and nosh.
Further to a recent post on the motion to open up ward business meetings to the public, the latest on THC web site states:
"The Highland Council has reaffirmed its policy of holding in private business meetings held between ward members and their ward manager and other council officials.
A motion proposing that Council meetings should start at 1 pm – instead of 10.30 am – to save the council money on providing meals for councillors was withdrawn.
During the discussion, Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, reported that a cross party working group of councillors was considering measures to ensure that members’ spending was as cost effective as possible. She said that catering was an area being examined to ensure value for money."
For full item click here
"The Highland Council has reaffirmed its policy of holding in private business meetings held between ward members and their ward manager and other council officials.
A motion proposing that Council meetings should start at 1 pm – instead of 10.30 am – to save the council money on providing meals for councillors was withdrawn.
During the discussion, Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, reported that a cross party working group of councillors was considering measures to ensure that members’ spending was as cost effective as possible. She said that catering was an area being examined to ensure value for money."
For full item click here
Friday, 18 December 2009
So just what will it take to make a project viable?
The planning system is there to promote, facilitate and regulate development in the public interest. The impact of development, much of which is irreversible, on the lives of individuals and communities can be very significant depending on its nature, scale and location. The planning system is also primarily concerned with long term investment decisions.
Planning Daily notes today that:
"Concern over a lack of understanding of development economics has prompted property and planning organisations to commission research on better training..."
Extract:
"Councillors and other professionals involved in spatial planning need a better understanding of how developers deal with risk and return. Councillors often seek higher section 106 contributions, including affordable housing provision, than schemes can bear. Other professionals make belated requests for financial contributions or on-site provision of facilities in new developments without appreciating the impact this may have on the scheme's viability."
Whilst I appreciate that the English and the Scottish planning systems have their differences, I think we all need to become aware of the concept of development economics.
The Planning Advisory Service has a page on this
There is also a very interesting on line brochure from GVA Grimley
GVA Grimley has also prepared a 'Draft Guide on Development Viability' for the Scottish Government - Directorate for the Built Environment - (July 2009) which APTSec is about to print out and look over.
Planning Daily notes today that:
"Concern over a lack of understanding of development economics has prompted property and planning organisations to commission research on better training..."
Extract:
"Councillors and other professionals involved in spatial planning need a better understanding of how developers deal with risk and return. Councillors often seek higher section 106 contributions, including affordable housing provision, than schemes can bear. Other professionals make belated requests for financial contributions or on-site provision of facilities in new developments without appreciating the impact this may have on the scheme's viability."
Whilst I appreciate that the English and the Scottish planning systems have their differences, I think we all need to become aware of the concept of development economics.
The Planning Advisory Service has a page on this
There is also a very interesting on line brochure from GVA Grimley
GVA Grimley has also prepared a 'Draft Guide on Development Viability' for the Scottish Government - Directorate for the Built Environment - (July 2009) which APTSec is about to print out and look over.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Meetings, meetings,meetings...
Just in case keen eyed followers / visitors hadn't already spotted this:
Highland Council gives notice of meetings on its web site and produces a 12 month timetable of HQ meetings.
Visit the web page here
The HQ timetable can be found by clicking on the link under 'Current Documents' on the HC web page.
Highland Council gives notice of meetings on its web site and produces a 12 month timetable of HQ meetings.
Visit the web page here
The HQ timetable can be found by clicking on the link under 'Current Documents' on the HC web page.
More cost effective public information?
Extract:
The Scottish Government is consulting on changing the law to allow public notices, like planning applications or road closures, to be advertised online in place of newspapers.
The move will allow councils to use a new public information notices portal, saving millions of pounds and enhancing local information services about the area.
The consultation on the draft Local Authority Public Information Notices (Electronic Publication) (Scotland) Order is open until February 12, 2010.
For the rest of the item click here
APTSec is itching to hear your views
The Scottish Government is consulting on changing the law to allow public notices, like planning applications or road closures, to be advertised online in place of newspapers.
The move will allow councils to use a new public information notices portal, saving millions of pounds and enhancing local information services about the area.
The consultation on the draft Local Authority Public Information Notices (Electronic Publication) (Scotland) Order is open until February 12, 2010.
For the rest of the item click here
APTSec is itching to hear your views
The City Vision 2010
APTTreas has noticed that there is a 'new kid on the block'. The Highland Council's Inverness City Vision 2010 blog can be found here
Let us know what you think of the blog and its content
Let us know what you think of the blog and its content
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