Political posturing with an inevitable outcome?

Dear Editor,

Having seen what happened with the Hillend Quarry campaign I can see a pattern repeating itself with the Faskine woodland area, and sadly I think the end result is likely to be the same.

Local politicians who are directly affected will, of course, get involved; rightly so. It’s their community which is affected. The ones who concern me are those who try to play both sides. I see this happening on two levels. Labour/Tory run North Lanarkshire Council shall oppose it locally. Probably some local SNP councillors will oppose it too, even though Alex Neil has clearly indicated he is in favour of it.

The development will then be referred to the Scottish Government minister, who will refuse it. It will then be appealed and go to the independent Scottish Government planner, who will probably approve it.

The Minister will defer to the planner, the Labour/Tory coalition in North Lanarkshire will then back down and harumph a little but get on with it; after all they support job creation and investment and have already said they are looking to have a new railway station built at nearby Eurocentral.

That’s ideal if you are looking to serve a rather large housing development and industrial area.

The most startling piece of support comes from Conservative list MSP Graham Simpson, who is being portrayed as one of the big hitters in support of the community.

In September Mr Simpson spoke in support of Ruth Davidson’s call for a“new generation of new towns to be built”. He went on to say that:“It is time for a new wave of settlements, designed for active travel, designed to use less energy, and designed for the people, with the people.”

In September last year Mr Simpson said in Parliament: “We need more homes across the board, including privately-owned homes. Reforms to the planning system can help with that but we will not see legislation until next year.”

He then asked if the Scottish Government could “find a way to speed up the implementation of measures such as simplified planning zones”to“unlock and hasten development”.

Before that in June 2016 he voted against a ban on fracking. So I’m somewhat sceptical that this pro-large scale house building, pro-fracking, pro-loosening of planning regulation MSP will do his utmost to thwart such a development.

If, as I suspect, this is bounced all the way up to the Scottish Government reporter who then approves it, Mr Simpson can claim some brownie points from the community while at the same time not being overly disheartened when his party’s overall aim is realised.

Had anyone bothered to elect a Green MSP or councillor then there may have been a genuine environmental representative that could be relied upon to protect what remains of the greenbelt in North Lanarkshire.

Sadly we didn’t, and it looks as though the winners will be the ones with the most expensive lawyers.

James Cassidy, Address supplied