I fear I may be turning into a planning warrior - similar to an Eco warrior? Maybe it is because of knowledge gained these last few years and maybe it's because I am a community minded individual and always have been. Just been a tad too busy in the past with work commitments to the Health Service.
Speaking of which, I recently met up with a hero of mine. Paul De Sousa of Roslin Cells. I met him when he needed advice with a clean room out at the site where Dolly the Sheep was born. No she wasn't born in the clean room.......it's just part of the site. Did you know why Dolly was called Dolly? Well it is because they used a mammary gland cell in the cloning process and we all know which famous female singer is called Dolly and what her striking attributes are. Anyway, Paul is my hero as I said. Hailing from Canada as a researcher he came to the UK to push forward the frontiers of medical and scientific research for the good of all. I was there once. As a youngster I walked down Ellens Glen Road, saw this bizarre building called The Protein Fractionation Centre, knocked on their door and chatted to the Production Manager of the time. I was awe struck and wanted to work there; immediately. Three weeks with the Bank of Scotland had done nothing for me as a school leaver who didn't know if she wanted to be a nurse or a physiotherapist. Get a job in the bank said my sis. That way you get a great deal on your mortgage. What’s a mortgage said I but went off and took the job whilst I pondered. These were the halcyon days though when one could wander into a building and ask for a job and get one. And so I became a junior lab technician and I just loved it. The gloss came off - doesn't it always.......and by the time I left as the Quality Assurance Manager I was pretty washed out with regulations. Became a fan of Quality Management though and especially Risk Assessment in the broadest sense.
Paul had a collaborative project with the Blood Transfusion Service and I was sent out to help him with coping with the regulators for his clean room. I hope I helped. Now I am hoping to get involved in some useful area of stem cell work. Maybe with more direct patient contact than I had in my last job and I am looking forward to seeing how this might evolve. Been to 1 conference already and 2 more are booked. The subject matter is fascinating and sometimes controversial. Hmmmmmmm.
I am digressing as usual. Can't help it. My nephew bought me a Nintendo for xmas and I am doing brain training. I think the neurons in my brain are dying off like everyone else's but the connections that are still there are firing off on far too many tracks for my own good. Some nights my head hurts.
Let’s get back to Dalhousie Crescent.
This is another planning story but subtly different to my own. 13 houses were built here about 10 years ago. They are beautiful houses although very up market and maybe not my style. Too formal for me with gardens and a garage and all things "normal". I hope no one is offended by that, I know many people could never live in my house because really, it is me that is not "normal".
When these houses were going through the planning process at the time, 1 house was “knocked off” by the planners to leave a large open area as amenity for all the homes on the site. The open ground being retained under the ownership of the green belt trust. (I am assuming then that all these houses were built on green belt land? I'm not sure but if they are and if the argument for not building on green belt can be considered, then this development is a good example of fair use of green belt - IMHO).
So everything went according to plan and the kids on the Estate use the open ground and the families use it for firework events and summer parties. Excellent. Then in Nov last year a fence was out up around the site and the home owners learned that 1 householder on the Estate had purchased the ground from the Green Belt Trust and now he owned the land. They put a fence round it to stop the rubbish piling up on the ground and that should have been it. But - there was planning condition that the ground was not to be assigned to any one house and not individually fenced. There were no factoring conditions.
The fence was a breach of the planning condition and so the new owners put in for retrospective planning permission. This was refused. Reasons being non compliance with the planning condition and the fence being inappropriate in the overall setting. The owners have appealed. This is where it became interesting because the appeals all used to go to the Scottish Office. Some still do - if ones application has gone to committee in the first place. But if it didn't need to go to committee and was dealt with by the planning group only as a delegated matter, then the new government guidelines are that the appeal goes to a local review board.
So we have a new local review board in Midlothian and it comprises 8 local elected representatives and at any time there must be at least 3 people present for a review to take place. At least that is what I have gleaned thus far. It is early days but I must say that I personally think the Scottish Office appeal route was a good system and it’s a shame it has been changed. I guess the positive outcome though is saving money and time.
Looking at the on line system then for the Dalhousie issue, there was nowhere to lodge a support for the neighbours affected by this fenced off area. I contacted the planning department and they said that they could take comment up to 8 days before the final review meeting so there was plenty of time. I have drafted my letter supporting the concerned neighbours and will submit it shortly. If anyone else is reading this blog that came to community council and has a view, then please write as well. The person to write to is;
Mhairi-Anne Cowie
Planning Officer
Midlothian Council
Fairfield House
8 Lothian Road
Dalkeith
EH22 3ZN
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