Planning Application Representations – Barrhead News (letters)

The unpopular decision taken by East Renfrewshire Council last year to no longer publish public representations to planning applications on their website, appears to have been taken a step further in an effort to save time and money.
Expert reports commissioned by local residents at great expense, are now classed as “Representations” and can only be viewed by visiting the Planning Department. Also, relevant ERC Officer/applicant email correspondence has been removed from the website and important responses submitted by some statutory consultees (eg. Glasgow Airport), applicants or their consultants are not being uploaded on to the ERC website at all or only after prompting by members of the public.
It has now been established that permitted noise levels are being breached by operational and consented wind turbines during the day and at night at five properties close to the Neilston Community Windfarm site. If local residents had not commissioned their own expert to review the inaccurate noise report submitted for a proposed additional turbine located beside the Neilston Community Windfarm site and had they not repeatedly contacted ERC asking for information which had not been made available on the website, the existing breach in noise levels would not have been discovered and this application could possibly have been approved many months ago without proper assessment. This would have added to the misery of local residents as complaints about the level and disturbing character of noise from already operational turbines in the area have not yet been investigated by ERC.
The planning process benefits from public participation allowing officials to prepare accurate reports and Councillors to make informed decisions. This is impossible to achieve if the public are denied easy access or indeed any access to important documents on which to base their representations.
ERC have been “monitoring” the situation long enough. Is it too much to ask that they listen to the views of their residents, admit their mistakes and act appropriately by reinstating all documentation, including representations, on their website as soon as it becomes available?

Aileen Jackson

Knockglass

Uplawmoor