Rosemary Young wants to see the decision reversed at the meeting on the 18th that will discuss the Highland Council planning department's mistake - a mistake that means the South Nairn application must be debated again, she is quoted in today's edition of the Inverness Courier:
"I think there is very little chance unless the people of this town get behind their community council. There's 10,000 people in this town and if they don't want this being built they have to make their voices louder," she said."
An article with pictures is on page 7 of the Courier today. There is comment from an SNP Councillor in the article but not one of our local ones Liz or Colin, Richard Laird the SNP member for Inverness Central is quoted. Last night on twitter he told the Gurn that he had commented to the paper:
@GurnNurn I have some strong views on the matter, but they will need to wait until the debate at the PED Committee.
— Richard Laird (@Richard_Laird) August 29, 2013
For more information on the South Nairn decision see several Gurn articles below this one and/or watch some of the video in the sidebar. Also in the Courier today a letter from a Firhall resident very critical of our local Highland Councillors.
It's all about money. Planing permission has been granted to all kinds of developments in Scotland on the back of financial reward. The most controversial in recent years is the Scottish government pushing forward Donald Trump's golf course on the back of jobs and investment, little of which has come to fruition. A strong local opposition was bulldozed by Alec Salmond.
ReplyDeleteYou only have to look around Nairn to see some questionable developments, the one at the harbour being a crying shame in terms of what might have been
It certainly could have been more tasteful, but the developers brief is to make as much money as possible so we get minimum size dwellings whilst trying to maximise the land. This combination is not usually atheistically pleasing nor does it provide a good environment for those that live there
But successive councils continue to welcome the income from developers even though there is often local opposition
The alternative is for the council to raise monies by other means, but how do they do that?
Nairn is attractive to many as a quiet seaside town, a sleepy place ideal for retirement and no doubt large housing developments would change the place. But we live in a country that is short of housing and surely failure to allow building will only compound that problem and we will rightly be labelled NIMBYS?
So... the question is how do we raise money for the council without developments and also we need to address the shortage of housing in the UK
Any danger ALL of our councillors could
ReplyDeletea) attend the meeting on the 18th
b) speak in our favour