I applaud Janet Walton’s very succinct letter in last week’s Barrhead News regarding ERC’s wilful disregard of its resident’s views.. The Planning Department in my opinion, appears to have a reputation for ignoring concerns raised by residents and elected members, avoiding questions which they don’t wish to answer and failing to make information available to the public.
The Cowan Park fiasco is not the first time they have wasted a significant chunk of our money. In June 2013 a Scottish Government Reporter awarded expenses against ERC due to “unreasonable behaviour” at a Public Inquiry for the Harelaw Windfarm. We are still awaiting an acceptable explanation from the Director of the Environment as to why his Officers appeared to be suffering from complete memory loss while under cross examination!
The Planning Department have withdrawn the publication of representations to planning applications on the ERC website, under the guise of a time saving/cost cutting exercise. This disrupts public knowledge and scrutiny and removes public comments from the public domain for reference
Making a visit to the planning office is a great inconvenience for most people, particularly those in full-time employment. My visit involved a considerable amount of extra work for myself and the Admin. Assistant, and I was horrified to discover some important documents were missing from the files presented to me, including representations. I was informed I would need to make a separate appointment if I wished to view them – involving more time and expense!
As ERC are so strapped for cash, why don’t they lobby the Scottish Government to increase planning application fees for wind turbines in line with those for the rest of the UK where they are ten times higher. As East Renfrewshire has three times more wind turbines (over 225kw) per square kilometre than its nearest rival, with no let up in the number of applications being submitted, they would be laughing all the way to the bank. They might even be able to afford some extra staff to redact representations and put them back on the website.
On the subject of wasting money, has anyone noticed one of the Neilston Community Windfarm turbines has not moved for a month? As their annual output to October 2014 was averaging 28%, 10% less than predicted, will Neilston Development Trust manage to pay off their loan in time and will the Village ever see any financial benefit from the windfarm? I hope they do because despite the windfarm being sited in Uplawmoor we won’t receive a penny, thanks to the legal document drawn up by the developers.
Aileen Jackson
Uplawmoor
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