A hard copy has been given to the members of the Development Management Committee
Sent on behalf of Councillor Mike Barnacle
I am away on annual vacation from 10th instant and cannot therefore attend the above Committee, although I did ask Nick Brian if he could have put back the Report for a month, which given the Report, would not have made a material difference but this was not agreed. It is probably just as well I am not attending because I am furious with the lack of progress.
I feel it is necessary to send to you the following background information viz:
- My email to Committee colleagues of 14/13/15 and enclosures
- My email of 11/8/15 to Nick Brian
- Brian Stanford’s reply of 12/8/15
- Briefing note from Eddie Jordan re Conditions on 18/8/15 (Note that Cllr Robertson had a recent site meeting to discuss noise issues but I don’t know the outcome).
IN SUMMARY, The intervening 6 months have achieved absolutely nothing. In fact site development into the ‘paddock area’ is a clear intention. No monitoring of the site occurs unless the community report activity.
Graeme Drummond, Asset Planner of Scottish Water advised me today that there is no current capacity at the Drum WWTP and no more connections will be allowed into the system in the foreseeable future. A number of properties in the settled community still await connection to what was an environmental improvement scheme both I and the community lobbied for; I do not wish to see gypsy/travellers given priority above others when they have so singularly failed to deliver on the conditions they promised to adhere to. In my view it is totally unreasonable to allow them another 12 months to connect to mains drainage that I and the CC have been assured is not likely to be available. A growth project is needed to stimulate further investment into the WWTP, a proposal from the settled community gaining credence with forward planning. The applicants have been on site, within the Lochleven catchment, since March 2012 without any drainage, sewerage and water arrangements, the protocol with SNH and SEPA is totally breached and I shall be writing on my return to the most senior officials at PKC, SNH and SEPA regarding their collective failure of the statutory duty to protect Lochleven (Policy EP7). Our ‘open-door’ policy RD5 requires immediate revision to protect the amenity of the settled community.
Yours, in disgust
Councillor Mike Barnacle
Independent Member for Kinross-shire
Note for Editor re Crook Moss
At the subsequent Committee, my colleague Councillor Cuthbert successfully moved an amendment that a report be brought back to the Committee on 13 January 2016 regarding enforcement of conditions. Unfortunately, the applicants were given another year to secure connection to the Drum WWTP and meet conditions relating to water supply. In my view, this continues to represent a complete failure by the planning authority in their statutory duty to protect Loch Leven under Policy EP7 and I shall be writing further on this. At the Member Officer Working Group on Planning Meeting of 28 September 2015 when Policy RD5(b) on new gypsy/traveller sites was stated as effective in current form, I requested it to be minuted that I did not agree that it was ‘fit for purpose’ in that it did not include reference to sites not having a detrimental effect on the residential amenity of the settled community and did not secure a reasonable distance of sites from settlement boundaries. I still feel this policy needs re-examining during the review of our Local Development Plan.