Call for investigation into Highland Council planning system
A fresh attempt at securing an investigation into the "unaccountable" Highland planning system will be made by a disgruntled councillor.
Jim Crawford claims communities are left alienated by Highland Council’s planning department and wants a cross-party review carried out.
But that has been dismissed by the local authority’s planning leader Thomas Prag who hailed it as one of the best in Scotland.
Councillor Crawford’s first bid ended in failure last month and his motion to the local authority lost by 36 votes to 29 as the SNP/Lib-Dem/Labour administration rejected the call.
The opposition councillor has reiterated his concerns and claimed community councils across the region felt "completely cut-off" in the wake of recent changes. He will lodge a new motion at the next full council meeting in March.
It comes after uproar in Inverness about the Scottish government decision to allow a controversial housing development near the historic Culloden Battlefield, which had been rejected by councillors last year, following a developer appeal.
Local Member Votes - which allowed councillors to vote on proposed new developments in their own areas even if they were not planning committee members – were controversially scrapped by the coalition last year.
There has also been concerns about creeping centralisation as the number of area planning committees has reduced in recent years with only two left for the whole region and the prospect of that being cut to just one body in the near future.
"I want this cross-party group to look at the whole system because communities are being short-changed," said Councillor Crawford.
"Can we make planning better, more accountable and bring it closer to people? It has been the tail wagging the dog for too long."
He claimed that three administration councillors – two SNP members and one Lib Dem – had privately pledged to support his motion last month but then voted against it.
The Independent councillor (Inverness South) called for a free vote with no political whipping in March.
But Councillor Prag, the planning, environment and development committee chairman, said he had offered Councillor Crawford the chance to discuss his grievances with senior staff but it had been rejected.
"He said that he ‘didn’t want to speak to people who were part of the problem’", said Councillor Prag, who insisted there had been no sweeping changes to planning.
"Most people only lose confidence [in planning] if their view has not been upheld. The Highland Council planning service is seen as a front runner, a benchmarker. Ask the Scottish government or anybody else."
The Lib Dem councillor (Inverness South) said that there had been no whipping prior to last month’s defeated motion. "The Independents voted as a block, so did the administration, so who is doing the whipping?," he added.