Integrity, principle and trust in politics

"You cannot hope to requisition,
Thank God, the British politician,
But seeing what the man will do,
Unasked, there's no occasion to."

Tomorrow, please don't vote for Davidson, Merson or Owen.






 

May 2012

I have announced that I will not be standing in the May 2012 elections.  After 13 years as a councillor (and with the last 4.5 years being "interesting", I have decided to focus on my new career as a planning consultant. 

A full statement can be found at http://aberdeengreens.org.uk/news/new-job-means-councillor-wil-stand-down
 

Living within our means

It's a problem for households and councils and today many councils wrestled more or less successfully with putting themselves onto a more sustainable footing. Sadly Aberdeenshire rejected the Democratic Independent proposals to raise £2m each year by exploiting renewable energy opportunities.

But even more than money (and we are reminded by Osbourne's latest round of quantitative easing that money is a social construct) we are overspent on resources - energy, water, food. I am indebted to Alan Owen of RGU for a thought provoking presentation to the RTPI this evening that highlighted the extent of the problem and to Bob Reid for pointing me to This recent Limits to Growth article.

On a global scale, there simply isn't enough to go round. There is no 'silver bullet' to fix this. To get down to sustainable levels, we need to consume at the level of Ghana and Palastine - and we are many time that. Here in the UK we need to reduce energy consumption by a whopping 87%.

So do we hide our heads on the sand and hope the problem goes away? Tempting.

But let's be positive.

Here in the north east of Scotland, we have great resources.
Could we grow enough food to feed everyone in the NE? Yes.
Could we produce enough energy to provide for our total energy needs? Yes.
Could we reduce our water consumption to sustainable levels. Of course, Yes.

The bigger question is will we?

So - over to you.

What do we need to do?
What changes have to be made?
How can we, together make it happen?

Strategic Development Plan : Main Issues Report Consultation

Please don't go to sleep.  This is important.

The Strategic Plan sets out in outline what the Local Development Plans have to say.  And they determine whether planning applications are granted.  It you do - or don't - want development in that field near you.   THIS IS YOUR BEST OPPORTUNITY TO INFLUENCE.

The new plan is not greatly different to the old except it takes development out to 2035 with, for example, in the Ellon-Blackdog corridor, in addition to sites for 825 houses already in the pipeline (I guess mainly Castle Meadows and Trump/Menie), another 800 are planned up to 2016 with a further 1,500 to 2026 and 1,500 to 2035.     That is roughly equivalent to a whole extra Ellon.   

The plan claims to be concerned about climate change and economic development and contains an interesting section on waste with the Ellon-Blackdog corridor identified as an area of search for new waste processing facilities.   

Please look at the documents at http://www.aberdeencityandshire-sdpa.gov.uk/DevelopmentPlan/StrategicDevelopmentPlan/2011_10_07MainIssuesReport.asp.  

I'll comment more here once I have digested all the documents but I am happy to answer your queries here.

Housing Allocation Information

A short while ago, I worried about proposed changes to Council House Allocation Policy.

Part of the justification given for the charges is

"the reasons behind the proposed changes are primarily to ensure the Council makes best use of
its stock and to give applicants realistic housing options. If you look at the attached spreadsheet for Formartine it shows that out of the 24 settlement 5 have a stock of 3 or less houses; 9 had no turnover in 2010/2011 and a further 8 had turnover of only 1 or 2 houses. While allowing applicants to chose from 24 settlement may appear to offer choice, in reality it is misleading in that there is either no or very little turnover in many of these settlements."

But over 40% give the reason for refusal in Formartine as Not Area Desired.  Just how does forcing people to specify a larger area help this?

Reason	%
Garden unsuitable	1.3
Heating	2.6
No longer require housing	10.4
No reason given	1.3
No response within 5 working days	7.8
Not area desired	42.9
Not ready to move	18.2
Property type unsuitable	2.5
Property unsuitable	13.0

Wouldn't it be better to be honest with people about the (lack of) houses available across the area:

Formartine	1 bed	2 bed	3 bed	4 bed
AUCHEDLY			1
AUCHTERLESS			4
BALMEDIE	9	10	2
BARRAVALE			1
BEREFOLD			2
CAIRNHILL			5
COLLIESTON	3	1
CUMINESTOWN	11	21	14	1
DAVIOT	3	2	4
ELLON	134	92	51
FOVERAN			3
FYVIE	32	20	11
KINHARRACHIE			1
METHLICK	20	17	4
NEWBURGH	12	10	13
OLDMELDRUM	50	56	10	4
PITMEDDEN	14	25	22
POTTERTON		11	15
ROTHIENORMAN	24	25	8
TARVES	29	14	6	5
TIPPERTY		3	4
TURRIFF	99	130	66	2
UDNY GREEN	7	2	2
UDNY STATION	17	16	7

and ask them to pick enough areas where they would accept a house as possible, pointing out that the total turnover last year was only 82 houses against a waiting list of 951.

Or does the council think that prospective council house tenants are too stupid to figure out that where houses are in short supply, their odds of getting offered anything is close to snowball in hell - but that if they choose places with some stock, there is a better chance?

North East Scotalnd Credit Union - coming to Ellon?

While at the RGU Fresher's Fair with the Scottish Young Greens yesterday, I got into conversation with John McCrank of the North East Scotland Credit Union. They have early stage plans of expanding their operations into Ellon and we discussed a few possibilities for where they could set-up a couple of times each week.

So if there is anyone you would like to be a local volunteer in Ellon, please get in touch with John at johnmcc@nescu.co.uk

More cuts and more straightjackets for local government.

Today I was at a Scrutiny and Audit Committee meeting where it was clear that over £400,000 of this years budget cuts would not be achieved ... And because some of this was primary school closures with the saving in futures years being over £2 million next year and a further £1 million in subsequent years, the consequences for future years are significant. Apart from the lack of a robust educational case for the planned closures, the stopper was the Scottish Government deciding that no rural primaries would be allowed to close.

Now John Swinney is saying that councils will again not be allowed to raise council tax ...

With the Council Tax freeze, councillors were left to decide what to cut. When ministers decided that some areas for saving were off limits, they then directed the cuts to other areas. And now the cuts will continue deeper than ever.

When I first stood a friend said "remember, Debra, that councils really can only do what government tells them to do and then it is compulsory'. She was only a quarter joking - the freedom to do things for the benefit of the citizen has always been limited.

Now the room to manoeuvre is being limited for as much as the next 5 years.   It's not an attractive prospect for Councillors doing little more than decide where the axe shall fall.  Fred Macauley on Radio Scotland this morning joked that perhaps the current 32 councils should be merged into one.  If the Scottish Government does not increase the independence of councils both in terms of what they are allowed to do and how they raise the funds to do it, then maybe Fred is right.

Local Transport Strategy - consultation

Aberdeenshire Council is now consulting on the next version of the Local Transport Strategy.  The draft is better than the old strategy in that it at least thinks that walking and cycling is a transport option rather than a leisure activity but I am sure we can improve it further.

You can read the draft here.


If you wish to comment on the draft LTS, you can use the online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/draftLTS or you can email details comments to ltsconsultation@aberdeenshire.gov.uk - or both!

The closing date for responding is 31 October 2011.

Empty Home

Housing standing empty for long periods are a problem and could make a contribution to the housing stock if they were brought back into use.  The first step is to know about them.
If you know of an empty home, please use Report Empty Homes.

Council housing allocation policy

I'm worried.

The Council is currently consulting on changing many aspects of its housing allocation policies but is trying to fast track some changes (see the full report here).

The proposals that worry me are

1. to reduce the number of reasonable offer from 2 to 1 and reduce the suspension period for refusal of a reasonable offer from 12 months to 6 months.

2. combine the existing letting areas (basically settlements) into larger units and ask people to select at least 2 of these bigger units rather than 5 settlements.

In Formartine, people would then be required to select 2 from:

Balmedie/Potterton/Blackdog
Ellon/Auchedly/Berefold/Cairnhill/Collieston/Foveran/Kinharrachie/Newburgh/Tipperty/Methlick
Fyvie/Auchterless/Rothienorman/Meikle Wartle
Oldmeldrum/Barravale/Pitmedden/Tarves/Udny Green/Udny Station
Turriff/Cuminestown

Any 2 of those 5 would cover a big area.  If people have places of work, family and friends who provide essential social support (taking care of the kids after school, etc), maybe it is simply not possible to live in Methlick rather than Potterton (16.5 miles away) : and the definition of reasonable is based on the housing need not wider social needs.

Council officers told us that the average number of people who are offered a council house before accepting it is 2.4 - or to put it another way, there is a 60% chance of someone turning down a house that is offered to them.  Locally we were told that the reason is rarely the quality of the house - so it must be location.  We are under pressure to let houses faster and reduce the housing waiting list.  But forcing people to select a large area and then saying "take it or suspend you from the waiting list for 6 months" doesn't seen to me to be very helpful.

People understand that if they pick a very small high demand area, they will wait a long time.  But surely that is their look out.  Offering people houses that they are even less likely to take because it is in a location they don't want, doesn't seem helpful to me.

Wouldn't we be better to tell people how many houses there are in each area and, if possible, the turnover?  The people who can be flexible will get a better chance of a house.   But if the need is specific, then that is just the way it is.  Offering houses in the wrong place will help no-one - except perhaps a statistician, looking to reduce the length of the waiting list.

I'd like to hear your views on this.

Offshore Wind Consultation

The public are invited to view detailed plans for the offshore wind project in Aberdeen Bay

Vattenfall, Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), the joint
venture (JV) partners behind the 11-wind turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) off Aberdeen Bay – have announced dates for forthcoming public consultation events.

David Hodkinson, UK Country Manager of Vattenfall, said: “The public
information events for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre are an
important part of the formal consultation and decision making process and
they follow on from our recent submission of a consent application to
Marine Scotland. We believe we have made a strong case for the
environmental and economic benefits of the EOWDC. I would like to
encourage people to make their own judgment after viewing the information
that we will present at the events and speaking to members of the project
team.”

Consultation events take place as follows:-

29th August Peterhead, Palace Hotel 2-8pm
30th August Newburgh, Udny Arms 2-8pm
31st August Ellon, Kirk Centre 2-8pm
1st September Balmedie, Whitehorse Inn 2-8pm
2nd September Aberdeen, Doubletree Hilton (Beach) 2-8pm

EOWDC submitted an application for consent on 1 August, 2011 and the formal
consultation process ends on 16th September 2011. Any representations to
the application should be made to The Scottish Government, Marine Scotland
Licensing Operations Team no later than this date.

To find out more, please visit
http://www.vattenfall.co.uk/en/aberdeen-bay.htm

March of the Menie

This March was in support of the Menie residents.

Trump's bullying them continues

• trees planted to block the Milne's views from the escarpment
• Milne's sent a near £3000 bill for a very cheap fence Trump erected round their property without consulting them
• a 5m high bund built in front of the Munro's house
• vegetation stripped in front of and behind the Munro's left as bare sand - you can imagine the effects of the sandstorm in the recent high winds.
• Constant surveillance by Trump's goons

If you would like to know more, please contact Tripping up Trump or come and see the Scottish Premiere of feature length documentary You've been Trumped at the Belmont, Aberdeen, 7pm Friday 17th June

Energy Monitoring

I have joined the Macauley Land Use Research Institute's North East Scotland Energy Monitoring Project.  They have provided one of those nifty little devices that display current energy use and the kit to link this to the internet so that a continuous track of our electricity use and house temperature is displayed.

Part of the intent of the research is to see how energy feedback measures help households monitor and manage their energy.  I am sure the effect will wear off, but we have already learnt just how much energy different devices around the house use.  And Gordon has started to fill the kettle only half way and switch off lights.  

Meanwhile we will keep on visiting the on-line trace, slightly fascinated by the data.

Democracy fails in Aberdeenshire: Unnecessary cuts forced through

LibDem Council Leader Anne Robertson and
"opposition" SNP leader Joanna Strathdee
discussing the days business in the Council
Chamber as the meeting starts.

Aberdeenshire SNP, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors have again behaved undemocratically and dictatorially after voting to prevent debate on a proposal by my group on the Council not to make planned cuts in the budget for primary school classroom assistants and visiting specialist teachers.  

The stifling of debate prompted the entire Democratic Independent Group of councillors to walk out of today's Aberdeenshire Council full council meeting.

Rather than debate the DIGs fully costed proposals, the ConDemNats seemed to be determined to squash even discussing alternatives to cutting school assistants. Proposals to make cuts deeper were accepted with no problem. Discussion on avoiding cuts was not allowed, even through it could easily have been done.

The Council was debating setting its revenue budget for 2011/12. Cuts totalling £27 million had been voted through at the full council meeting on 25 November 2010. The Council's Liberal Democrat, Conservative and SNP councillors moved motions to increase the cut to the primary classroom assistant budget.

When Cllr Martin Ford, on behalf of the Democratic Independent Group, rose to propose that the classroom assistant budget be spared from cuts, it was ruled he could not make the proposal unless two-thirds of councillors agreed to suspend Standing Orders.

Democratic Independent Group councillors Mark Cullen, Martin Ford,
Paul Johnston, Debra Storr and Sam Coull were disgusted that the Council
refused to  even listen to their proposals to reduce damaging education cuts

Cllr Ford moved the suspension of Standing Orders, appealing to the council to allow an open and democratic debate on this important issue. Only six councillors voted to allow the issue to even be discussed.

At that point the Democratic Independent Group expressed their disgust at the councils undemocratic behaviour and walked out.

The Democratic Independent Group wanted to substitute a cut in the unadopted roads budget, which is little used, for the cut in the primary school budgets.

Commenting Cllr Martin Ford said “I am appalled at the council's refusal to allow open debate. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to propose further cuts in classroom assistants – but seeking to stop the cuts is now allowed.  This is completely one-sided.  These school staff cuts could and should have been stopped today.

Cllr Paul Johnston said “Aberdeenshire Council sank to a new low today. They made a cut in primary education that they did not need to make. They had the money and will now not reverse their decision.”

Cllr Sam Coull added “Teaching and education in the primary schools just got a whole lot more difficult today.”

When a consultation means nothing

Yesterday, the consultation period for Aberdeen City's new Local Development Plan finished and I know that lots of people, concerned about proposed developments to fill in Union Terrace Gardens, force a new road through Berryden and Tillydrone to connect to a 3rd Don Crossing and build 1500 houses and a Stadium at Loirston Loch will have made representations.  I just hope that City councillors treat their efforts with more respect than I saw today at Aberdeenshire's Formartine Area Committee.

Now under the new planning regime, the Council can't itself make changes to the Plan at this late stage.  But it is open to the Council to indicate to the Reporter which suggested modifications it really dislikes (and why), which it could live with if necessary and which it really doesn't mind at all.  If the Reporter then finds that changes are necessary, consequential changes can then be in accordance with the Councils wishes.  Without this "red, amber, green" signposting, the Reporter just has to assume that the Council doesn't care.

Now it was clear that at least three of the four Ellon councillors, including me, were relaxed about letting the proposed development at Foveran happen earlier.   The argument made in the representations was that the larger development was needed to build the necessary infrastructure, especially sewerage.   So we will now find that this development which is modest in total scale and therefore might actually be deliverable in the current economic climate, will be delayed until the larger project is permitted.  Crazy.

For information, the majority of my colleagues voted to "Instruct officers to defend the proposed plan against all other unresolved objections at the forthcoming examination".

I, seconded by my colleague Paul Johnston wanted to recognise that the proposed plan was the settled will of the council but ask officers to note the following comments in framing the Council's response to the representations.  We were, of course, defeated.

We wished to have comments in regard to Foveran, Oldmeldrum, Tarves, Balmedie West and Blackdog noted.  (PJ - have I missed anything?)

Ellon Academy

Next weeks Formartine Area Committee will, I hope, finally decide on the site for the new Ellon Academy.  After a long process and having explored many options, it now looks like the Academy will be sited south of the river at Cromleybank with a new footbridge over the river around the Meadows helping link the Academy to the town in the short term. 

This fits with the Local Plan, keeps the school as close to the town centre as possible and fits with the expectations of the town.

Now I know the offer of land to the north looks attractive to some.  But the land is only worth £9m if it is at development land value - and it is agricultural land.   I have opposed development to the north of the bypass; we need to bring the town together not simply add more peripheral estates to the edges.  The Cromleybank development option was far superior and the Academy was an integral part of the plan.   We would lose a lot in the long term to change strategy now.

Snow

I want to share two things with you. First a lovely map of the snow across the UK from the BBC and Dundee University.

And secondly, the Met Office Snow Map.

Enjoy!

Budget decisions - the very bad news

Today the LibDem/Tory administration of Aberdeenshire Council, with the support of the SNP supposed opposition decided to go ahead with some £27m of cuts.

Now we know that we shall have to make cuts that are of that extent. But looking at the proposed package of cuts the Democratic Independent Group had some serious reservations. While recognising the necessity of officers continuing to work on cuts (you can't make large scale redundancies in a matter of weeks - the council needs to start seeking volunteers and identifying and notifying "at risk posts"), we did not want to make some of the cuts at this stage.

For a sample of cuts agreed to today see the P&J

One oddity was that many councillors went into the Council Chamber believing that we were being asked to let the process start rather than finally decide. The DIGs have checked and we were careful to say that we only agreed to the process starting. The SNP had some detailed comments but clearly were not expecting final decisions to be made today. However, most of them voted with the LibDem/Tory administration (a few abstained) - so in my book they bear equal responsibility for the cuts.

To be fair the LibDem/Tory administration said they took on board some of the SNP comments. But as there was no formal amendment from the SNP, and no formal amendment of the administration motion, it is a mystery to me what has been agreed. I am pretty certain however that the DIGs comments will not be "taken on board".

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Aberdeenshire Council today decided to meekly accept John Swinney's 2.6% cut in grant - and promised not to raise Council Tax.

They were forced into this position by the threat that if they raised council tax by even the smallest amount, the grant would be cut by 6.4% - leaving an even greater shortfall in resources.

The choice was not a real choice. The devil of a cut ... or the deep blue sea.

I worry about a government who argues for greater powers for Scotland but imposes straight-jackets on local government. Can't they see the inconsistency?

This continuing freeze is populist short term nonsense. Professor David Bell is right - there is no sense in an effective cut in property taxes which mainly benefit middle incomes when the poorest suffer most from council cuts.

Castle Park Planning Application

I am glad that Aberdeenshire has decided to approve this scheme,  We all agreed that the process of involvement with the town via the Enquiry by Design was an exemplar that we would urge other developers to seek to emulate.  The idea of high density, high quality, walk-able neighbourhoods, where the public realm focuses on people rather than cars, has become common currency in planning and development circles but as yet there are no large scale examples in Scotland.   

So I am pleased that we now have in the pipeline a development at the new higher densities and high quality of design that were called for by the then Planning Minister Sam Galbraith a decade ago.   He asked "Where are the conservation areas of the future?" and I hope that with this bold step Ellon has answered with a very loud "here".

Process concern

But I am also concerned that the move to determining major planning applications (more than 50 houses or 2 hectares) by all 68 councillors is problematic.  Until today, we had only uncontentious applications at full Council and that introduced an unnecessary delay into the process.    But when an application turns out to be contentious, as this one was,  some people will feel aggrieved that councillors from far flung parts of Aberdeenshire have decided the fate of this application.   Six members of the Formartine Area Committee voted to refuse:  Five voted to Grant: a narrow majority in favour of refusal.  But the local decision was outweighed by the decision of the Full Council.  I can understand if objectors to the proposal feel aggrieved.

---

As I am getting some stick here, can I just mention that members of the Formartine Committee (Ellon ones in bold) split

Grant: Cllrs Duncan, Hendry, Johnston, Merson, Storr.
Refuse: Davidson, Gifford, Loveday, Norrie, Owen, Robertson.

Planning Workshops

Now it's not often that I have a good word to say about ACSEF.  But I attended one of the workshops they are organising about planning and found it very interesting.  A good mix of planners, community councillors and developers - with in this case me with my student hat on (quickly swapped to councillor) and one of my lecturers.   And a true workshop with people discussing issues and listening to each others viewpoint (even me and Bob Collier)

Never fear, they are not facilitated by the forces of darkness that animate ASCEF but by the angels of Planning Aid.
 
Details of the current series can be found at Workshops and the next three are on

• Friday 3 December 2010 Broadstraik Inn, Elrick, Aberdeenshire
• Tuesday 25 January 2011 Chamber of Commerce, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen
• Thursday 24 February 2011 Chamber of Commerce, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen

12.30 to 4.30 including lunch.

Enjoy now before ASCEF gets its funding cut as part of the overall budget reductions.

Planning Aid Training

Panning Aid, Scotland's Planning Advice Charity, is holding a day long session on Planning Procedure on Saturday 27th November from 10am-4pm , in the Kirk Centre, Station Road, Ellon AB41 9AE.

It is targeting at Community Council members but those interested can also attend so if you wish to register for the event, please let Robert McGregor know by Wednesday 24th for catering numbers. 

For more information on Planning Aid for Scotland please see their website
at  - http://www.planningaidscotland.org.uk/

Robert McGregor
Area Committee Officer

Direct Dial: 01358 726405
Email: robert.mcgregor@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Trump on TV

I watched the BBC program me on Trump carefully and thought that it gave a fairly decent picture of the issues. Any programme is limited so it is forgivable that it omitted the disgraceful actions of local and national politicians. However, there are other films and sources for these. The only thing most people need to know is that there is now proof that if you want to protect the environment, none of the big 4 parties can be trusted.

The BBC film is available on iplayer until next Monday but you might also wish to view this short film (with a cameo from me)

The wrong side of a hole from jon Pullman on Vimeo.

Pacts with the devil

Ok .. So councils that smile at a 2.6% cut in grant, and promise not to raise council tax, get one sum of money.

But if any council wants to protect services by raising council tax, regardless of what their constituents may say, get punished by a 6.4% cut in grant.

Someone (except NF) please explain the logic of a SNP government arguing for greater powers for Scotland and refusing to let Councils make their own decisions?