Consultation has been launched by the Scottish Executive on the formation of a new planning body for the Edinburgh City Region, which would produce Strategic Development Plans for the whole of South East Scotland. Sandy Aitchison and Nicholas Watson will urge both Scottish Borders Council and members of the public to respond to this consultation and is likely to oppose the Borders’ membership of a new level of planning authority.
“The future strategic development of the Borders should be a matter for the whole Council, not just two members, however diligent, on some joint committee made up from several Councils,” says Nicholas Watson.
It is not yet clear whether Scottish Borders Council is preparing to respond to this consultation, but Nicholas believes they should. “We trust that members of the Council will be given a proper opportunity to debate this issue before a response is made to the consultation, and that members of the public will make their views known too. Personally I believe that this new layer of authority will be focussed on the needs of the city region and, yet again, the real needs of the Borders will be sidelined. We are extremely wary of such moves and will be giving our detailed reasons over the coming weeks.”
Have your say
Consultation on Strategic Development Planning Authorities, which would cover the four largest city regions, around Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, can be found on the Scottish Executive website.
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3 comments:
There is even more to this than the consultation document indicates. More to come.
Concerned said...
Borderers need to wake up! Now is the time to make our views known to the Scottish Government.
There is no use moaning later when Scottish Borders affairs are being run by a small group whose main concern is the development of Edinburgh.
23 September 2007 11:41
Anonymous said...
Wake up Borderers or you will sleep into being a suburb of Edinburgh.
23 September 2007 11:44
The powers that be in Newtown tell us that there is no reason to be worried by the Edinburgh city region, that this is not about the Borders being run from Edinburgh.
But my fear is that joining the city region will lead to the Borders being run from, by and for the benefit of Edinburgh.
The Borders is the only case in Scotland of a region not adjacent to a city being included in a city region, where strategic planning decisions will be taken on our behalf by people who don't understand the Borders, Borders people and all the things which give this region its unique identity.
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