Developers get preferential treatment?
Liz MacDonald lets rip after David Sutherland – chairman of Tulloch Homes – got a special visit at his home by “senior planning directors” over a personal planning application:
Anger over ‘preferential treatment’ for north tycoon
Angry councillors have alleged Inverness businessman David Sutherland was allowed “preferential treatment” by hosting talks in his own office with senior council officials about a personal planning application.
The revelation has particularly angered a Nairn councillor who believes the closure of her local planning office will force constituents to travel 15 miles to Inverness to discuss their planning issues.
While it’s easy for a cynic to already suggest HC are in bed with developers already, I’ve got to admit I find it hard to sympathise with Liz’s comments.
After all, Nairn’s planning process is hardly a shining light of intelligence and accountability.
I’ve also heard it claimed that the personal planning application process in Nairn is an uneven process, with applications more likely to go through if certain contractors are used for the plans, as opposed to qualified independents.
While it’s impossible for me to determine if such claims are true, the one thing that is certainly clear is that for an increasing number of people the whole planning process is neither trusted, regarded as fair, nor intelligently managed.
If the Highland Council and its councillors want to challenge that perception, perhaps they can stop making personal calls on developers. We can already see they get preferential treatment already – there’s no need to rub it in our faces.
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I think Liz MacDonald was right to get angry.
There is a curious contradiction between, on the one hand, the correspondence reported recently in the Nairnshire Telegraph in which a Council planning official was quoted as saying in a letter that Nairn people with an interest in a planning matter “may have to travel to Inverness to see a case officer”, and that this was “only” a 16-mile journey (each way!)
…. and on the other, the P & J report on the Sutherland affair which quotes a Council spokesman as saying: “It’s normal practice for officers to arrange meetings that are at the convenience of the customer or the applicant. There will still be surgeries at Nairn. For anybody who wants to meet a planner in Nairn over a Nairn application, we’ll accommodate that.”
The proof of the pudding….?
Obviously, Tulloch have a strong – but sometimes very contentious – relationship with the Highland Council:
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/8416/Planners_press_for_approval_of_hotel_development.html
Good to see senior planners want the original hotel to continue, despite objections from apparently sane people that adding a monolith to an area surrounded by listed buildings is a good idea.