Caithness backlash over planning powers move
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A DECISION to centralise all planning committee meetings to Inverness has been blasted by a Caithness councillor as a “cold efficiency”.
Wick member Graeme Smith argued the plan – agreed at a meeting of the full Highland Council last week – replaces governance “with diktat and Draconian adherence to policy”.
Councillors voted to reduce the number of planning application committees in the area from three two – one to cover the North and one for the south.
This means, as of January, the North’s planning application committee will cover wards in Caithness, Sutherland, East Ross, the Black Isle and Skye, while its south counterpart will take in those in Inverness, Lochaber, ?Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey.
The county will be represented on the North committee by two councillors from Landward Caithness, and one each from the Thurso and Wick wards.
The move will, however, mean all meetings will be webcast from Glenurquhart Road, while a commitment has been given to monitor and review the work of the two new committees within a 12-month period.
Mr Smith said the council had taken a bad decision, claiming the measures are only preferable for planners and the authority’s cabinet.
“This council seems bent on copying the Nationalist centralising tendency encamped at the foot of Arthur’s Seat by pulling everything Highland to the local seat at Glenurquhart Road,” he said. “It is a cold efficiency that takes the local out of local government and replaces governance with diktat and draconian adherence to policy. Slavish adherence to policy may be effective, but it rarely makes for good governance.”
He added: “Unfortunately, the excess of previous wayward councillors in planning matters has made it easy for the centralising tendency to foist this illiberal efficiency onto a battered Highlands which has just about given up on ever seeing the local being put back into local government.
“No real argument was made that the public do not want a change that can only benefit the planning officials and the policy control freaks in the council cabinet.”
Members approved the proposals by 22 votes to 11, with 26 abstentions. They also agreed with the governance review group’s recommendation to consolidate the work of the land, environment and sustainability strategy group, the climate change working group and the community benefits working group.
A new rural affairs and climate change strategy group, which will be made up of 15 councillors, will be in place from January.
Speaking during the meeting, Thurso councillor Donnie Mackay said the move was another step towards further centralisation of services.
“I was elected nine years ago as a local councillor, when decisions were taken at a local level. There are now no decisions taken locally. It is terrible that everything is becoming centralised, the way things are going hospitals will soon only be available in Inverness. This is not the right decision.”
Supporting the move, Councillor Ian Ross, chair of the planning, environment and development committee, said: “The decisions planning committees make are increasingly open to scrutiny and legal challenges.
In order that councillors come to decisions that can stand up to robust internal and external scrutiny, access to professional advice and guidance from our staff during meetings is important.
“Public access to how we do business and come to decisions is also vital. Webcasting allows members of the public, stakeholders, agencies and businesses to follow proceedings wherever they are.
“I believe this new structure will be fit for purpose with local members still very much at the heart of decision-making.
“Another important bonus is that meetings will be held monthly so people will find the planning application process is speeded up.”
