Charrette final session in the Golf View

Oor Sandy once again introduces Jim MacKinnon, the Chief Planner to the Scottish Government.

It was quite a meeting with Jim answering some awkward questions that led to some lively debate. There were a couple of no-nos from the beginning however. Sandy started: " I think we are all aware that Sandown is Common Good land, we're not going down that road tonight, if there are any issues with common good land we are not discussing any issues anyone may have. There's a meeting on Monday night with the community councillors so we'll be discussing it in full on Monday night. So we will not entertain anything regarding the legalities or otherwise of the Common Good."

Jim stated that he understood that there were anxities about the Common Good: "As the Scottish Government we have no locus with this and from what I've seen from correspondence that has passed my way I guess that this is something that could well end up in court."

Jim outlined the other no-no too: " The other point I made and I made it a month ago in the town house, we're not revisiting the principle of development on Sandown or anything else in this area, that has been established for quite some time and it has been through a development plan examination, the reporter recommended basically endorsement of everything that was in the Highland wide local development plan. Some of you may well disagree with that, well the reporter's recommendations are binding and as I undstand it Stuart (turning to Stuart Black) you'll be taking it to the council for final endorsement as the second local development plan and the most up to date local development plan in Scotland. So revisting some of these debates really isn't on the cards."

The planning high heid yin then went on to open the debate: "What I do want to do tonight is having heard from Tim is really asking two questions. How was it for you? Is this a better way of doing business than the council say here is the plan what do you think of it? Were you able to contribute effectively to the process. Were there barriers that you felt in terms of the timing of events? I know that people were concerned at the last meeting that there wasn't sufficient notice. So I kind of think yes, we need to learn from some of the successes but also maybe we want to learn from things that maybe haven't gone so well too. At the end of the day however inclusive you find the process or however bad, at the end of the day what you will judge this by is the quality of the development that arrives in Sandown. That is the ultimate test."

There then followed a presentation by Tim Stott who showed drawings slightly amended from the previous versions and he made a plea for those present not to try to undo all the work that had gone into the charrette so are and to suggest fine tuning in the future rather than radical change and to put in what everyone could agree on but to leave flexible those areas where was presently no agreement. This observer found one part of what Tim had to say extremely interesting, he spoke on the taboo subject of the common good fund but on in the sense of its relevance to planning. He said, "It's worthwhile that the common good retains an interest, an ongoing interest in the site, we talked about a design code and one way to enforce a design code is the for the landlord if you like, it is far easy to enforce a design code if it is written into the title rather than relying on planning conditions to do that."

Tim also spoke about long leases rather than selling off the entire site. He also suggested what might be a solution for the complaint that local people are not getting their fair share of affordable housing that is built in Nairn. He said, "If you a benevolent local landowner then the Highland small communities housing trust can actually have an allocations policy that favours local people. If you are getting government grant aid for affordable housing then the allocations policy has to be on the basis of need but if you have a benevolent local land owner and a housing trust involved that doesn't rely on government hand-outs then you can alter the allocations policy in favour of local people."

After Tim's presentation Jim made reference to the unsatisfactory situation the community faced with Deveron's application for 550 houses and then opened the meeting to comments and questions. John Hart said that Sandown had been allocated for 100 houses originally to which Jim responded: "I'm always very nervous about the arithmetic of housing supply and demand, what we are trying to create is get quality out of..." He was then interrupted by laughter from a small section of those present. At this point he was pretty firm and told those amused by his comments:

"It's all very well sniggering and all of that, there are some serious issues here, we are trying to transform the planning system, there are more opportunities for public involvement in planning, guaranteed by statute than any other area of public policy and this a genuine attempt by the council to do things differently, and what I want to know is, you may have reservations about the principle of development but that debate has been had, as a way of influencing how this area was developed, do you think this was a good way of going about it."

More later

Common Good “Death by Powerpoint?” meeting offered to CCs after an out of the blue e-mail.

At the Suburban Community Council meeting last night the latest goings on in the long running Common Good Fund stushie were made public. John Hart told the meeting:

“The original start point was a the Charrette opening, Jim MacKinnon the Chief Planner (Scottish Government), did point up with William Gilfillan that we would have a meeting between the Community Councils, ward Councillors and himself(WG) to discuss the Common Good and he asked us for an agenda which we submitted and agreed amongst ourselves, which suggested that the Common Good should be run by the community councils so there is a separation between the decision making and the managing. That agenda was rejected with the suggestion that the meeting would be a waste of time.”

John that said that an attempt was made to hold a meeting anyway with the four councillors. He continued: “On Monday I still hadn’t heard anything so I sent an e-mail to Mr MacKinnon saying we still hadn’t got a meeting and that matters relating to the Common Good as they are managed and as it’s been seen by people to be poorly managed we hadn’t moved further forward, having had the 1st March meeting effectively cancelled and out of the blue a few hours later after my e-mail an e-mail came from Louise Clark saying there was a meeting on the 5^th of March of all the community councillors – that’s all 30 of us in the Courthouse at 7.p.m on the 5^th at which they are going to do a presentation on what they have or haven’t done with the common good and we’ll see what that brings."

Brian Stewart expressed that the forthcoming meeting might be a “Death by Powerpoint” event and it should not be the Highland Council lecturing the community but rather them listening to the community.

There was then some considerable discussion on matters which serious gurnite students of common good affairs will be au fait with. It did emerge that there had been some confusion between the three CCs over the formation of the agenda but Tommy Hogg indicated that he was generally happy with the final result. There was talk of whether a meeting should go ahead before the new Highland Council is formed after the 3^rd of May elections given that faces and policy may well change. Alistair Noble was forthright in the view that all 3 CCs should be present in the best interests in Nairn given the dangers of what he perceives as divide and rule mechanisms and people playing games. He was adamant that there was a need to “focus on looking forward.” Tommy Hogg agreed and he more or less summed up the feeling of the meeting when he stated: “I think we should go for it, holding off would be a mistake to me.”

"You could actually shape the future of Nairn if you do this properly "

Another extract from the speech by Jim McKinnon, Chief Planner to the Scottish Government, when he opened the Sandown Charrette last Monday night:

"I’m not very keen on the term charrette, to be perfectly honest, and I wish I could find something better. And trying to explain to the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary what a Charrette was, wasn’t that easy and trying to get him to commit to it, but interestingly our ministers have got really interested and enthusiastic about it. They see it as a really good way of engaging with local communities. It is interactive in which the public and local professionals work directly with the design team to generate a specific master plan.

You guys have probably been used to Highland Council coming along and saying here’s a plan what do you think of it? You might be used to a developer saying here’s a plan what do you think of it? This is very different, this is a plot of land, a large plot of land. I was astonished how big it is. It’s allocated for development. You could actually shape the future of Nairn if you do this properly or you can just do it on a site by site basis and that I’m afraid is what we’ve done far too often in the past. So the starting point is the site, its technical constraints but also its opportunities. What views across to the Black Isle and down to Inverness! It’s an absolutely fabulous place in which to create something that bit special. So that’s the key thing to remember about a charrette, Julian, Catherine, Janet, they’re not actually coming with fixed ideas on this. OK, no one is coming and saying this is the way it is going to have to be developed. We’re expecting you to input to the Charrette how you think it’s going to be developed. But it is against the background of the principle of development has been established for ten years on this site."

Pictures here of the results of the process so far from the drawings on the Courthouse wall on Thursday afternoon.

Charrette - Chief Scottish Government planner - "Was it you that was in the kaftan?"

There’s a lot of Charrette material on the Gurn just now, please scroll down for other articles. This observer feels that perhaps Gurnites would appreciate some extracts from what the Scottish Government’s chief planner Jim McKinnon had to say to those gathered in the Courthouse last night. After his speech he fielded questions and there was no shortage of the usual material that has been the mainstay of the battlefield that has been local politics when it comes to Sandown for many years now. If time permits this week we’ll try to give you the most of Jim’s speech plus his encounters with some of the usual suspects. Here we go them with Jim's opening:

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be here, some of you might know that I grew up just along the road in Forres. I’ve got a great affection for Nairn, my first Latin teacher came from Nairn and I still tremble at the thought of him, and I can still decline amare and dominus, not as quick as I used to but I can still do it. Nairn I think is a nice town, I like Nairn. It’s got great golf courses and I can recall many really enjoyable evenings at the Ballerina. I don’t know whether it still functions as a music venue.”

At this point Oor Sandy made an intervention:

“You’re showing your age now,” he said.

“Was it you that was in the Kaftan?” Replied the Holyrood planning top gun.

He continued; I will also remind you that Nairn County are trailing Forres mechanics in the Highland League at the moment. I recall Nairn as a very vibrant small town and arguably less so now. Although I know the Council has put in a lot of money into improvements in Nairn but, you know, pretty much like any town, any city in Scotland, so much of the modern development you see fails to gladden the eye or lift the spirit and that is why we are here tonight. To start a process that gives you the opportunity to shape the future of Sandown. How it looks, how it feels and how it functions…”

more later Gurnites.

Sandown Charrette kicks off - the Courthouse tonight

Oor Sandy with Julian Farrar of architects Ironside Farrar who are facilitating the charrette.

Jim McKinnon, Chief Planner at The Scottish Government with Chairman of the Council’s Planning, Environment and Development Committee, Councillor Ian Ross. What a class act Jim was, a very interesting mannie - a Forres loon with memories of the Ballerina. More of what Jim said later

Members of the public in attendence

A very interesting night out Gurnites - more later. The charrette runs for the next three days - see the schedule here.