Friday, August 30, 2013

“The whole planning process is little more than a charade”

Firhall resident Douglas Flett has had a letter published in the Inverness Courier today, in it he dishes out scathing criticism of Nairn’s Highland Councillors. Here’s a part of his letter which comes after he describes the site visit of the Planning Committee to Nairn last week before the eventual decision to pass the South Nairn application:
“Our tribunes then returned to Inverness and, after lunch, nodded through the planning application unanimously.
Nairn Councillor Michael Green is reported as saying: “Even if we had gone for refusal it would have gone ahead anyway and we would have lost local control:” What a spineless attitude! What local control is there to lose if his reason inaction is correct?
His colleague, Councillor Colin Macaulay, backed the development because he trusted transport officials’ assessment that the situation would be manageable. I wonder who else agrees with that viewpoint? The remaining Nairn Councillors Provost Liz MacDonald and Councillor Laurie Fraser remain conspicuous by their silence.
The case shows all the signs of another council planning debacle and begs the question of why a very expensive planning department exists at all. One can only conclude that the whole planning process is little more than an expensive charade. Local democracy? I think not.”

Douglas Flett is wrong however, Laurie did speak of course but most of it was versed  in terms of tweaking what Liz told the Gurn was in her view a fait accompli (more in this previous Gurn article).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unlike community councillors Liz, Colin, Michael, and Laurie are paid for their duties as councillors and their remit is to represent their community

If at my work I failed to attend meetings, spoke half heartedly, or not at all I would expect to be sacked for not fully giving my full 100% for the company I work for

Could someone explain to me as to why there doesn't seem to be this expectation of our four councillors, or at least if it's there why they don't carry out their full duties without any comeback?

Do we have to await the next election before we can remove councillors who don't seem up to the job?

There have been calls for marching on the streets to protest at the go ahead for Nairn south. Might I suggest marching on the streets to get councillors in office who are prepared to fully work for the people of Nairn and not be poodles to the administration in Inverness?

Anonymous said...

We were recently told by some of our councillors that the deal struck with regard Common Good land at Sandown was good even though we were effectively handing over thousands of pounds mainly due to council incompetence

Now we're supposed to accept Nairn South as a done deal by some of our councillors

Where do these people live, it surely can't be Nairn

Rosemary Young said...

NAIRN SOUTH DEVELOPMENT

PROTEST MARCH 15th September starting from Bus Station 2 p.m.
T shirts provided bring your own banners and tell the so called 'powers that be' what you think.
Further protest in Inverness on 18th September outside Court House time to be notified.

Dont wait to moan when all these houses impact on our roads and services - act now it is time for people power. Show the elected councillors how YOU feel about your town!

Anonymous said...

Living in an electronic world in terms of news gathering I looked at Liz's Facebook page today

Lots of political postings about Scotland, the UK, and indeed the world, but next to nothing about Nairn issues

Surely local councillors should be just that, and the local community should be the focus of their attention?

Nice photos of horses :-)