I think many planning professionals will be querying the legal basis whereby Scottish Ministers called in the Trump golf development in Aberdeenshire (The Herald, December 5). This was not a "live" planning application but one which had been determined and as such ceased to exist after the decision date. The call-in legislation only refers to applications that have yet to be determined. A right of appeal to Ministers does exist for the applicant after determination - but only to query the decision or parts of it. Mr Trump has chosen not to exercise this right.
We are told the reason for intervention was that it was an issue of national importance. But that was the case when the application was submitted. Yet Ministers declined to intervene then. One is left to conclude that the reason for this latest development is the pressure exerted by the business community after an unexpected council decision against.
However, by their actions Ministers have effectively conferred third party rights of appeal on those business interest groups in favour of the development. This is especially ironic when you consider that these same interest groups were prominent in objecting to such rights when the new Planning Bill was out for consultation. Their main argument then was that it would hinder decision-making and add delay. Yet here, after a quick decision by committee, we are witnessing increasingly desperate attempts to delay its implementation.
What this does is drive a coach and horses through the whole planning process and in particular the mantra of community involvement. As the committee chairman commented, Trump's engagement with the wider community has been an all-or-nothing stance, with no compromises. If Trump had resubmitted the application to the whole council and had it passed, do you seriously believe these Ministers would have intervened and given the objectors' stance the same consideration on grounds of national importance, ie, that a nationally designated site was being destroyed?
Ministers have to act impartially, collectively and in the interest of natural justice. But we are told the final decision will be taken by the Finance Minister, not the planning minister as many would have expected. What does that tell you?
Robert Menzies, 2 Burnbrae Gardens, Falkirk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article