Cllr Debra Storr - Ellon & District

Last week at the PLI it emerged that Trump and the Council were proposing a deal whereby the Council provided land and Trump build 98 affordable plus get to build and sell an extra 52 open market houses at Balmedie. Great you’d think - we need affordable housing in this area.

But there are two problems with the proposal.

First the Council sold the site proposed to Castlemill Housing Association in April 2007 specifically for 150 affordable houses as part of a large package. So regardless of whether the Trump development goes ahead or not, the site is already earmarked for affordable houses. With the land in its ownership Castlemill can get grants and borrow to develop the land.

Second, while part of the site sold to Castlemill is allocated as a site for 25 houses, the remainder of the site is not yet allocated in the Local Plan. It is merely marked as an area of search for allocation for 2011-2015. No decision has yet been made to allocate this land for houses - the deal proposed collapses if it is not.

The site is just south of the Chapelwell development at the south of Balmedie.

The deal with Trump only emerged last week at the PLI. Normally councillors do not see the details of affordable houses contribution and other element of “planning gain” for housing developments but the rules at PLIs and for Ministers are different so this became public last week.

The requirement in the Local Plan is to aim at 35% affordable housing across the area. 35% of 500 houses is 175 houses. Are we getting the best deal for Aberdeenshire that we can? I don’t think so.

Next week the Menie Estate PLI concluded with site visits on Tuesday and Wednesday and Closing Submissions at the AECC on Thursday.

And then it’s up to the Reporters to make a recommendation and John Swinney to make a decision.   It all hinges on the comparative values we place on our environment, the integrity of our planning system and economic development.

I still believe that there is a modified smaller scale development that would provide great benefit without trashing a SSSI.  This applicant still says they want all or nothing.  That is a pity - we could have a win-win here with just a little compromise.

As a Balmedie resident (rather than in my councillor role) I went to the planning consultation on Balmedie yesterday.  Fairly lively with a good range of views expressed.

If anyone is reading this and missed out, contact Paul Johnston, pjohnston@cix.co.uk with your comments and he’ll pass them on.

The local police have made a concentrated effort to catch speeding motorists in some of our towns and villages and, to date have caught 50 people.

In 30mph zones in Castle Road, Ellon and in Newburgh, a quarter of those caught speeding were driving above 50mph. This is simply not acceptable and I hope no-one will show these drivers any sympathy for being caught.

But more importantly, I hope all those caught will think about and change their driving behaviour and the rest of us will watch our speed more carefully.

If one PLI wasn’t enough, Paul Johnston & I has another - Orrock quarry.

Just three days held mainly using this new-fangled Hearing rather than inquiry format mainly. Interesting and I think more accessible to the public.

At worst, we have achieved a better situation for the residents of Drumhead Cottage and I think better conditions than Council officers had proposed. But this would be an additional “bad neighbour” for the area.

Now it’s in the hands of the Reporter …

I spent today at the first Scottish Conference of the Politicians in Planning Network of the Royal Town Planning Institute.    It’s good to meet others and spend time thinking about our roles in delivering places for the future.  It’s too easy to get bogged down in the day to day detail and the local situation.

I attended three sessions within the day.

A session on climate change reminded us of how crucial this issue is.  To meet the 80% cut in greenhouse gases target by 2050 we need real action NOW.  But the changes needed are difficult.  Now I read the Economist and New Scientist as well as newspapers.  There being 936 peer reviewed articles attributing climate change as predominately man made versus ZERO against this.  But in the general media, 53% articles say that the changes are not predominately man made.  How can we expect people to change behaviour when many people, including some councillor colleagues still dent it is something we are responsible for and can do something about.

A second session gave a good example of how a model of the types of changes we need to make is feeding into the Glasgow City-Region Structure Plan.  See details of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Project (GRIP) here.

And finally, with all the changes shortly to arrive in the planning system with the new National Planning Framework, new City Region Plans and Local Development plans, requirements on developers to consult pre-application for major developments etc, it was good to hear from a private sector planning advisor on how the developers are reacting.

I’ve done Public Local Inquiries (PLI) before but the scale of this is something new - and that is daunting when we are just four individuals representing a view against an applicant with a former Lord Advocate as their QC!

The Reporters (there are 3 working together on this) are running things very well and fairly as you’d expect.

Today we had Mr Trump presenting his evidence and being questioned. We were disappointed that he wasn’t better briefed by his team - on many issues he simply directed the issue to his advisers. And he gave us scant comfort about access to the site.

And then now we are talking to the golf designer Martin Hawtree but we seem to have a fundamental problem - the application is outline and all his work is detail.

My day started with the Radio Beeb 7.20 live from Balmedie beach with more TV and Radio later.

Tomorrow I pray for a later start! At present a glass of red wine would be good.

Today was a long day … 9.30 start my other job and then 4.30 to past 9pm at the launch of the Core Paths 1st consultation draft. Lots of good questions from the public on how this was all going to be delivered on the ground. And that is a challenge to both Aberdeenshire Council and the Scottish Government who placed this duty upon us. But both users of paths and land managers seem to welcome the concept in general. The public want access and the land managers need this to be properly managed. If we can get it right this can be a win-win.

Tomorrow is the start of the Trump Public Local Inquiry. First press interview at 7am … a full day at the Inquiry with more press at lunchtime and in the evening.

At last, the Energetica proposals are published.  And I heartily welcome these.

Here in Scotland, we have build wealth from the energy, knowledge  and inventiveness of our people.  In the north-east that meant we could capitalise on the North sea oil boom.  We have world-class engineering firms here.  There must be an opportunity to use that expertise to build the next generation of energy industries.  We can’t replace our current high-knowledge, high-wage industries with service sector jobs.

I’m glad that the Aberdeen-Peterhead corridor has been identifies for growth in this, with Peterhead as the shore-sea interface, Bridge of Don as the new technology part and Ellon/Newburgh as the Green Heart, showing show sustainable settlements can work.

This growth, building on the existing skills and knowledge, working with our environment is what we need here.

Let’s do it! 

We are fortunate in our local police team - they make great efforts to engage with local communities.

PC Iain Clark, one of the Community Beat Officers, will be holding a ’surgery’ in the Mobile Police Office at the following locations etc and you are most welcome to drop in if you so wish;

Monday 9 June
Main Street, Newburgh - 10am - 11.30am
Leisure Centre Car Park, Balmedie - 1.30pm - 3pm

Tuesday 10 June
The Square, Tarves - 9.30am - 11am
The Car Park, Methlick - 11.30am - 1pm