Highland Council planning shake-up put on hold
A major shake-up of Highland Council’s planning committees is set to go on ice for another year, it has emerged.
The authority’s two under-threat bodies for the north and south areas could be scrapped and replaced with a single committee for the whole of the Highlands following a review.
The suggestion had sparked anger from the political opposition last month which claimed it would lead to a loss of local accountability and less representation from councillors.
But a stay of execution now looks likely with the SNP/Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition expected to table a recommendation at next Thurday's full council for a decision to be taken in 2014 instead.
It is understood the council leadership hopes the move will quash speculation on the committees’ future for the next 12 months but the introduction of a single body could still be on the cards afterwards.
The council already has one licensing board after a regional set up was scrapped.
The administration has argued that new legislation has cut the number of applications being decided at committee has reduced significantly.
Another change expected to have an effect is that the local authority’s plans in schools, offices and other buildings can now be decided under delegated powers, provided there are no objections.
Lib Dem councillor Thomas Prag, who is the authority’s planning leader, said local councillors will still play a key role in planning through the roll-out of area committees to the rest of the Highlands later this year following the Inverness and Caithness/Sutherland pilots.
"We are committed to introducing strong local member involvement, particularly in planning strategy," he said.
"Our plans for additional area committees will allow them to have a strong input into the new local plans being developed for their areas. This will create the policy framework for future applications to be considered against."
Councillor Isobel McCallum, the planning spokesman for the Independent group, was unaware of the administration move but insisted the north committee, which she chairs, still enjoyed a busy workload.
At Tuesday’s meeting in Inverness the committee took 16 different decisions, including agreeing not to oppose a giant £3 billion wind farm off the Caithness coast.
The current set-up has only been in place for 18 months after the three previous committees serving Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Ross, Skye and Lochaber bit the dust.