HIGP Press Release
Greens Claim Highland Council Planning System in ‘Meltdown’
— 20th February 2010
Highlands and Islands Greens have today challenged Councillors on Highland Council’s planning committee to explain their recent decision to award ‘in principle’ planning permission for a substantial business park at Inverness Airport. (1) (2) Greens point out that crucial decisions have yet to be made about the future of the A96 corridor following the recent public consultation.
Donnie Macleod, Highlands and Islands Greens’ Westminster election candidate for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey said:
“So it has begun. The Lib Dem-led Highland Council have given the thumbs-up to start concreting over huge swathes of the land around the A96 despite their own consultation having barely finished. This process has been a charade, and shows all too clearly that Highland Council's planning system is inconsistent, undemocratic, and essentially in complete meltdown.
“If the Councillors on the Committee had any respect for the consultation process, they would have waited before taking decisions about any substantial planning applications — particularly one on this vast scale — until the new development plan was agreed. But no, they have completely ignored their much-vaunted claims about the importance of public consultation and ploughed on regardless.
“Furthermore, last year the Council deferred making a decision on Highland and Islands Enterprise’s Inverness campus project until after publication of the Council’s Highland-wide Local Development Plan, now due in spring 2010. This decision by the Planning Committee about the A96 business-park is clearly wholly inconsistent with the decision taken over the Inverness campus project.
“Highland Greens are not against development — far from it — but development along the A96 corridor will drain the rest of the Highlands and Islands of people and jobs. In our response to the ‘Main Issues’ consultation we recommended expanding the infrastructure of existing communities across the Highlands, rather than focussing development in one area which is already over-heated.”
Notes:
(1) Highland Council’s officials’ report to the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Planning Applications Committee’s recent meeting is here (PDF).
(2) Highlands Greens have written to Councillor Jimmy Gray, Chairman of the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Planning Applications Committee on The Highland Council, inviting him to explain the Committee’s decision.
