SNP Demand Openness & Transparency in the Falkirk Council Planning Process

SNP Councillors have demanded openness and transparency in the planning process after the Labour chairman of the Environmental & Heritage Committee, Adrian Mahoney admitted visiting sites with local councillors but refused to reveal which sites and with which councillors.

Falkirk Council’s Draft Local Plan was out to consultation last year and attracted over 800 individual submissions from community groups but mainly landowners and developers.

A meeting of the Environmental and Heritage Committee to discuss the Local Plan was to have been called before the end of February but has yet to be called.

This meeting would recommend to full council any changes to the Local Plan produced and circulated and is likely to attract major interest from developers.

At the last meeting of the committee Councillor Mahoney admitted to having visited various sites at the invitation of some members but has so far refused to identify which sites he has visited and with whom despite to written requests and one call made at the meeting of Falkirk Council on 5 March.

SNP Depute Leader, Councillor Tom Coleman, sought assurances from Mr Mahoney that no third parties were present at the these meetings and called on the convenor to declare which sites he had visited in his capacity as chairman of the committee.

It was at this point that Provost Pat Reid intervened to prevent further scrutiny and moved next business effectively denying members the right to quiz Mahoney and contribute to the wider issue under discussion.

SNP concerns that the planning process has been brought into focus with some bizarre decisions taken against the advice of officers and in conflict with the existing Local Plan by the Regulatory Committee chaired by the maverick Councillor Billy Buchanan, which also includes Adrian Mahoney.

At the last meeting of the committee there were five applications approved against the Local Plan including residential development at a Greenfield site in the Braes.

Buchanan was dubbed a developers delight in 2005 by fellow Independent Councillor Robert Spears when the first draft of the new Local Plan came to committee that day. Buchanan moved or supported amendments that would have resulted in an additional 4000 more private houses than allowed for in a move that saw him removed by the SNP from both the Strategic Planning and Regulatory Planning Committee s by the SNP at that time.

Said Councillor Coleman

“We have to be concerned when the convenor of the committee responsible for the strategic planning process of the district admits to meetings to discuss which sites go in and which sites come out but wont tell members who he has met with.

Planning has to be seen to be open and transparent as well as actually being open and transparent and the refusal of Cllr Mahoney to outline who he has me with and where does not meet either criteria.

Its time that Labour got its act together otherwise the confidence in the integrity of the planning process built up under the SNP will be lost and we truly will become developers delights.”