Anxiety at tight time frame for ten-year masterplan
Councillors may have just over a month before they are asked to agree to a 1,000-plus pages draft of evidence to submit to the Scottish Government for a new Local Development Plan.
The plan is a guide to what happens in the county between 2028 and 2038, and covers housing development, infrastructure, transport, and communities.
But the initial hefty document brought more questions and criticism than answers this week.
Linlithgow' Lib Dem councillor Sally Pattle told a meeting of the Economy Community Empowerment and Wealth Building PDSP that she had 'serious concerns' that councillors would have enough time 'to get this right.'
The document – 1059 pages long – is the combined two years of evidence gathered which has to be presented to the Division of Planning and Environmental Appeals DPEA to be 'gate checked' as the foundation of the next Local Development Plan (LDP).
This broad-brush approach to evidence gathering threw up anomalies and outdated information which the SNP's Andrew Miller highlighted, including one suggestion that three buses served Livingston Village when in fact none do.
Only halfway through the meeting did councillors find out that council officers had based their ward evidence on community council boundaries, which threw up anomalies such as bus services.
Councillors also picked over the lack of details in individual sections of the report demanding more detail be included before a final draft goes to a meeting of the full council and then on to the DPEA.
Councilor Susan Manion stressed on several occasions that this was the first draft of the document and was open to change and improvement.
All councillors moved to praise officers for the amount of work that has gone into the first draft.
Councillor Pattle said: 'I am now seriously concerned as I have sat here for the past ninety minutes, it's been revealed that we are supposed to go to full council to agree this and that its five weeks' time.
'I was under the impression that when it went to full council it would be after recess in September, giving us months to prepare for this.'
Addressing the ranks of planning officers seated in the Livingston chamber, councillor Pattle continued: 'I appreciate your time today and I'm sorry that we have come across as hyper local but that's our job.
'We are here to scrutinise on behalf of our wards to make sure this incredibly important document is right when it goes to the gate check.
'I am now extremely concerned that we are not going to be given adequate opportunities to do that.'
And she warned: 'Developers are going to be watching us like hawks. they are going to be using this as the basis for development for the next ten years. We have to get this right. I would like some reassurance that we are going to be given enough time to do that.'
Fellow Linlithgow Councillor Pauline Orr, SNP, said: 'It's a huge piece of work and we are the face of our communities, so we absolutely have to get it right.' She praised the 'amazing' work of the officers in producing the 1059 pages of evidence.
Director of Planning Craig McCorriston moved to reassure the meeting that he was happy to meet councillors and take additional information from them to correct inaccuracies.
He said that the draft evidence had to be ready to present to the DPEA by May 2028. The process is defined by government legislation, but he conceded that the time frame for the council to prepare the draft was 'tight and we do have to work at speed.'
He added: 'We have opened up to scrutiny today in a way which we hope is helpful to members and will engage further in the coming week to go through matters of concern or errors. Then we will ask the Provost to progress to a special meeting of the full council.'
He stressed: 'If we get this wrong it is going to independent scrutiny and the DPEA Reporter will send it back to us if we have not gathered enough evidence. I'm pretty confident that we are just about there but am happy to take that extra few days to go through things with members.'
Councillor Willie Boyle said: 'I'm looking forward to further opportunities to discuss it when it comes to actually putting the plan together. Power to your elbow I know we are up against a time schedule here and I fully accept that. We are where we are with that. We need to get it done.'
Depute SNP group leader Pauline Stafford said: 'I'd like to acknowledge the work that's gone into this report, and I hope members of the public will take time to read through it as well.'
Councillor Stafford added: 'I sit on the Development Management [Committee] and the reason I do is because I think it has such a vital role to play in all we do in council. This is what builds strong thriving communities. Planning is often, for elected members, misunderstood and for the public is often mistrusted, and as much transparency we can provide and show communities we have actually listened is vital.'
By Stuart Sommerville Local Democracy Reporter
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