New 144 MW wind farm to generate equivalent of 66,000 homes.
Planning
New Cairngorms National Park community decision due
The Cairngorms National Park is the largest park in BritainThe Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is to consider a proposal to create a new community on the outskirts of Aviemore.
Park officials have recommended that the CNPA’s planning committee approves the project in principle.
Rothiemurchus Estate’s project would see 1,500 homes and business and community facilities built in phases at An Camas Mor, close to Coylumbridge.
The CNPA said it would be one of the “biggest developments in a generation”.
The Cairngorms National Park is the largest national park in Britain.
Duncan Bryden, CNPA planning committee convener, said the proposal required a rigorous examination.
He said: “This is the largest and most complex application to come before us – indeed it is the only proposal for a new community in a UK National Park.”
Objectors to the project include Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group.
It said the site was home to a large population of slender groundhopper, a rare invertebrate, and other species of wildlife.
The An Camas Mor project team sees the 259-acre (105-hectare) development as a solution to the area’s “chronic shortage” of housing, business and community facilities.
If approved, the scheme would be built in phases and completed by 2027.
Feltham Lakes – Concorde Village fiasco hits the headlines
Green Belt housing scheme promoted by footballers leaves investors in the red
Investors from the Far East have been left without a penny gain in four years after putting money into a “get rich quick” property scheme promoted by two former England football players.
By David Hencke – Telegraph.co.uk
Published: 9:00PM GMT 13 Mar 2010
A marketing campaign fronted by Bryan Robson, the former England captain, and Steve McMahon promised a 250 per cent return in three years if a gravel pit near Heathrow airport was developed for housing and leisure.
However, the site is on green belt land where housing development is banned.
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While Profitable Group, the Singapore-based property company behind the scheme, has made at least £47 million from the deal, nothing has yet materialised at the site – not even a planning application to build a single house.
The two former footballers, now living in the Far East, used their celebrity status to market the scheme on television across south-east Asia in 2006.
Profitable changed the name of the tract of land from Lower Feltham Lakes to Concorde Village for the purposes of the marketing drive.
But no development can take place unless a planning inspector can be persuaded to overrule the site’s green belt status against the wishes of Hounslow council, the local planning authority, which firmly opposes building there.
A spokesman for the council said: “We would only develop green belt land if there were very special reasons. We see no special reasons for doing so on this site.”
Profitable, of which Mr McMahon is commercial director, has bought four sites in Britain for a few million pounds and divided them into thousands of tiny plots which have been offered to investors, bringing in tens of millions for the company.
The Feltham site was bought from Taylor Woodrow (now Taylor Wimpey) for £3.2 million, then resold in small plots at £8,000 to £13,000 each to overseas investors, a practice known as “landbanking”.
The sales raised something between £50 million and £55 million. Investors will realise the cash when and if the land is redeveloped.
To try to develop the Feltham site, the company has now brought in two British lobbying and consulting firms to market the scheme and draw up plans for the development.
Chelgate, a Westminster lobbying company, has sought to counter the council’s opposition by devising a public consultation procedure, including the staging of an exhibition with five different ideas to develop the site for housing and leisure, to which 5,500 households were invited.
Chelgate’s deputy chairman is Nick Wood-Dow, an adviser to David Cameron and deputy chairman of the Conservative party’s environment council.
The other company working for Profitable is DLP Planning in Sheffield, which is seeking to make changes to a London-wide land-use plan in a move that would increase Hounslow’s housing target, forcing the borough to accept more new homes within its borders. However, the final plan will not be drawn up until 2012.
Mr Robson told The Sunday Telegraph: “I was paid to do a commercial TV advert to be shown on Singapore TV five years ago for Profitable Plots.
“I have not done anything for them since and I was unaware of any controversy over development of the land.”
Profitable declined to take questions and instead asked Chelgate and DLP Planning to reply on its behalf. Chelgate confirmed that a television campaign featuring the footballers had been used to promote the deal. The advertisement is still on Profitable’s website.
A Chelgate spokesman said: “Circulation of a TV advertisement showing land at Feltham… as offering an estimated return of 250 per cent in three years, was aired for a short period in 2006… such advertising has long since been withdrawn. Investments have been sold on a minimum 7 to 10-year horizon.”
Chelgate also said the company would repay anybody who wanted to drop out of the scheme. Its spokesman added: “No investors in the Lower Feltham land have exercised their right to sell.”
Link to original Telegraph Article
Donald Trump using bully tactics, claims Aberdeenshire estate resident
Homeowner refuses to sell to make way for tycoon’s golf resort
By Gillian Bell – Press and Journal
DEFIANT David Milne is refusing to sell his Hermit Point home to the Trump Organisation.
The angry homeowner lives in the middle of Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire estate and has accused the tycoon of using “bullying” tactics.
David Milne, 44, who lives at Hermit Point, is a former coastguard lookout at Menie Links, which has views of the billionaire’s north-east empire.
The house and land is one of a number of plots Mr Trump has said he needs to produce the “best possible design” for the £1billion project.
The Trump Organisation recently submitted a planning application to add five privately-owned plots to his golf resort, which includes Mr Milne’s house and land.
He said: “He’s been a real pain in many ways, the most recent one is this application for planning permission on my land. It may be legally acceptable to apply for planning permission on someone else’s land, and in certain cases it’s understandable.”
But he said the move, coupled with the potential use of compulsory purchase – raised by Aberdeenshire Council in a briefing note to members – is “immoral, unethical and a bullying tactic”.
He said he has had “practically no contact” with the organisation, apart from a “derisory” offer for his home in 2007 for a sum which would have bought him a “two-bedroom flat in Dyce”, and a recent letter to tell him the organisation was applying for planning permission for his land, which said if he wanted to sell he was to phone.
But the HSE consultant insisted last night he would not sell to Mr Trump “under any circumstances”. He said he has invested 17 years of his life in Hermit Point, which he converted from a former coastguard station into his home, which he shares with his wife, Moira.
The Menie resort project director Neil Hobday said he has sent Mr Milne an invitation to talk to the team and stressed the door was “always open”. He dismissed claims the Trump Organisation was using immoral, unethical and bullying tactics as “inaccurate on all counts”.
And he added: “The mechanism for compulsory purchase exists but we very much hope we won’t get to that.”
Mr Trump’s aide, George Sorial, said Mr Milne’s assertions were “disingenuous” and talk of compulsory purchase “very premature”. “We did make offers in the past, which were based on market value,” added Mr Sorial.
The council has said it would expect applicants to have exhausted “every possible opportunity open to them” before it would require to consider compulsory purchase powers.
The golf resort would include two championship golf courses, a hotel, 500 homes and 950 holiday homes north of the beach on the Menie Estate.
Editors comment:
Councillors who voted for this Trump development need to seriously consider how they can justify representing the interests of the community in this planning fiasco – a sign of the times…
Bottom line… It will be interesting to see just how much economic benefit will result to local residents and businesses from this development.
No doubt any profits will be used elsewhere in the globe and not for the direct benefit of Scotland or Scottish tax payers.
Tulloch Homes announces new facilities for Milton of Leys
Residents say developer’s original pledges for community services have been greatly watered down
Tulloch Homes announces new facilities for Milton of Leys
By jonny muir Press and Journal
Published: 10/04/2009
Developer Tulloch Homes has revealed plans to build a care home, a church, a primary school and shops on land at Milton of Leys, south of Inverness, which would be the first community facilities in the area.
But residents there have accused the developer of watering down the long-awaited community facilities after it slashed the amount of open space and upped the number of houses.
At present, the nearest school or shop is four miles away, which has made Milton of Leys the butt of jokes as its only existing community facilities are a postbox and a £10,000 “bandstand”.
Despite welcoming Tulloch’s proposals, residents say they are bemused that plans for community facilities mooted a year ago have been scaled down.
A substantial area that was once earmarked for open space with play facilities, including £100,000 of play equipment, has shrunk to a small wedge of land on the site’s periphery, even though it would overlook homes.
It is now envisaged that play facilities and a recreation area will be created within the grounds of the school, prompting concerns that the facilities will not be accessible outwith school hours.
Milton of Leys Residents’ Association chairman Gavin Norton said: “As a growing community of 600 homes, we are thrilled that we are going to get a primary school, but it can’t be at the expense of losing other community facilities.”
Mr Norton said there was also frustration that Tulloch had increased the amount of land allocated for housing on the community site from 1.5acres 12 months ago to 2.5acres now.
Residents learned about the proposals in a letter from Tulloch saying that an application had been submitted to Highland Council seeking permission for a “district centre, including retail, residential, care home, children’s nursery, community facility and primary school”, but it was not until the residents’ association obtained detailed drawings that the full extent of the changes emerged.
Mr Norton said: “Tulloch has done nothing wrong. They have provided all they need to provide. But the first reaction of most people will be: ‘what one earth is going on’?”
Milton of Leys community councillor Barrie Haycock said: “It smacks of Tulloch trying to increase its profit margin by putting as many homes on the plot as possible.”
Inverness Crime Prevention Panel chairman Jim Ferguson said there were signs that antisocial behaviour in Milton of Leys was on the rise, making it vital that community facilities are provided on the estate.
Tullochs were not available for comment.
Growth being led by developers, says campaigner
ASK Barrie Haycock why he decided to move to Inverness, he will tell you it is because he thought the Highland Capital was a good place to come to.
Growth being led by developers, says campaigner
By Calum Macleod – Inverness Courier
By Calum Macleod – Inverness Courier
Four and a half years on, ask him if it is still a good place to come to and he hesitates.
“It’s difficult,” he said.
“It’s no better than other areas throughout the UK. The bottom line is that Inverness has the opportunity to learn from other areas and plan accordingly but no-one seems willing to do it.”
This apparent unwillingness to get to grips with the area’s planning deficiencies seems even more surprising to Barrie given the Highlands’ economic reliance on tourism.
“Tourists do not travel to see rows of soulless housing,” he pointed out.
For Barrie, who retired from a career in business at the age of 50, coming to the Highlands was an easy move to make as communications technology allowed his own public relations and allied services firm to operate from anywhere he chose.
He still enjoys getting out on the hills at the weekends and journeying to the unspoiled West Highlands, but soon learned that other parts of the region, not least Inverness itself, were going through what he describes as a quantum change.
To Barrie, Inverness’s rapid growth is being led by developers at the expense of community benefit and with little or no strategic planning or effective planning control “The emphasis in Inverness is on trying to build houses and then try and sort out the problems afterwards,” he said. “Exhibit A is the new trunk road with talk of bulldozing the new church at Inshes and compulsory purchase of properties. You would have thought they would have reserved the land, but that would be too easy.
“There is a growing view of many people in Inverness that the council should firmly get to grips with the situation and control planning so that development can take place in a properly thought out manner.
“Consultation is a joke. It’s a meaningless word in the planning process. Objections are rarely listened to and it’s the will of the developer that prevails over the will of the community.”
His awareness of discontent with the planning situation in Inverness was only heightened by his involvement with local community organisations.
Barrie is a founder member of the Milton of Leys local residents association, a member of Inverness Crime Prevention Panel and an Inverness South Community Councillor. More recently he has become involved with the Highlands and Islands Resilience Group, a disaster planning initiative designed to look at how threats such as pandemic influenza and terrorism could affect the Highlands.
These activities bring him into regular contact with a range of business owners, chamber of commerce members, police officers, community leaders, MPs, MSPs and Highland Council officials and local councillors.
A common topic of conversation has been concern at the way Highland Council is being run and its rapidly growing external debt problem which, by March this year, stood at a gross figure of 580 million.
The loss of prime farm land to residential housing with no meaningful infrastructure is another area of concern.
It was a prominent local councillor who initially suggested that a “Planning Watch” organisation was needed.
Barrie took up the suggestion and, as communities throughout Britain have similar issues to Inverness, widened the remit to create Planning Watch UK.
The organisation’s aims, objectives and interests are not confined to property matters. The regulation of the building industry, including land maintenance and property management companies, remains of prime importance.
“At present the new house build purchaser has been described by the National Consumer Council as having less consumer protection in law than when buying a kettle. This cannot continue and in general allows developers to make huge profits at the expense of the unsuspecting purchaser,” Barrie declared.
Nationally, Planning Watch UK members and contributors are working with MPs, MSPs and other organisations to introduce legislative changes to give houseowners the protection they need, just as locally the organisation wants to see more evidence of meaningful strategic planning.
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Barrie Haycock, Planning Watch UK campaigner. |
“The developer profit-driven process ignores the crucial requirement of infrastructure,” Barrie commented.
“Any future development must also look at education, health and transport services through to the massive number of jobs required to support the growing communities.”
Equally important are forward planning for roads, sewage and water supply and potential flood risk in certain areas. While there are plenty of bad examples of planning in Britain Telford in Shropshire or Scotland’s post-war New Towns there are also more positive designs which the Highlands could look to, such as Poundbury in Dorset. Designed by architect Leon Krier for landowner Prince Charles, this is an integrated community of shops, businesses and private and social housing and one which the planners of the Highlands would be advised to follow, Barrie suggested.
There are similar projects proposed for the Highlands, such as the “New Urbanist” community at Tornagrain, but for Barrie these being built are on too limited a scale and the principles which they adopt should be applied throughout the Highland region.
His work for Planning Watch UK and his other activities does take up a lot of his time and includes researching and studying local authority documents or fielding inquiries from journalists, but it is something he enjoys. “I don’t like to see people misled or ripped off and I have particular empathy and concerns for elderly people who are hung out to dry by the process. Who do they turn to for support?”
Barrie is scathing of a council which, he says, “would rather spend 300,000 on a fireworks display than care of the elderly.”
“The elderly are always the first to suffer when councils run into funding problems, yet the fat cat desk jockeys who decide the financial cuts continue to thrive,” he stated.
“This issue is constantly being raised by those who suffer and is a high priority for Planning Watch UK. Care of the elderly, young and disabled has to be of major importance but is so often put at the end of the bureaucrats’ list.”
Which is why Planning Watch UK highlights anything it regards as a waste of taxpayers’ money and wants to see local authority and government quango spending kept under strict financial control.
“A local example seems to be the bizarre reported redundancy payouts made to HIE members of staff, some of whom seem to have moved to highly paid new jobs some within Highland Council while collecting massive redundancy payments. This is an absolute disgrace!” he declared.
Barrie stood as an Independent candidate in the 2007 Highland Council election for Inverness South and came last, but reveals that he feels happier outside the political system.
“If you are part of the current system, you could very quickly get drowned under the current method of operation,” he said.
That system has been made even less effective, he believes, by the recent move to a party political council from one with a tradition of political independence and the creation of multi-member wards.
“The multi-councillor ward system isn’t working, full stop. None of the councillors can agree amongst themselves. End result: chaos,” Barrie said.
“Our councillors are paid salaries now, so there should be accountability all the way down from the chief executive to the most junior councillor.”
What is not so important, to Barrie at least, is the political hue of those councillors or even the MPs and MSPs.
“I’m apolitical,” Barrie stated.
“I don’t give a damn what party is in power as long as there are sensible policies from that party and I believe most people think the same.”
c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk
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