Minister defiant over Park of Keir
Scottish planning minister Kevin Stewart has defended his decision to approve the Park of Keir development.
Stirling Council leader Scott Farmer was forced to write to Nicola Sturgeon over the Scottish Government’s controversial approval of the proposal for a hotel, tennis centre, museum and luxury homes between Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, backed by Judy Murray.
The First Minister passed the correspondence to Kevin Stewart, the planning minister who overturned the independent enquiry reporter’s recommendation that the scheme be refused.
In a response to Councillor Farmer’s letter Mr Stewart said: “Ministers have a general power to call in any live planning application on appeal for their own determination but in practice they exercise this power very sparingly, recognising and respecting the important role of local authorities.
“Consequently they only consider intervening in cases where there are issues of genuine national significance that would warrant them determining an application.
“While I note your comments and concerns, you’ll be aware that in this particular case the appeal was recalled for ministerial determination due to the potential economic, tourism and sporting to intervene in such matters with a view to preventing them from overriding decision making at a local level.”
Councillor Farmer told the Observer this week: “I am conscious that the planning application on Park of Keir has generated passions on both sides of the argument in the local community and, in accordance with a council decision, I wrote to the First Minister to outline concerns that were raised by councillors.
“Without precedent, I believe that given the circumstances surrounding the issue it is in the interests of openness and transparency that both the letter I sent to the First Minister and the response from the minister for housing and local government should be put into the public domain.
“It is always important to note that matters relating to planning applications are strictly non-political by law. This is in accordance with long-standing regulations for planning in Scotland.
“I am encouraged by the Scottish Government’s commitment to reform the planning process by ensuring more decisions are made at a local level,with more cases to be reviewed by local review bodies rather than a Scottish Government reporter.
“I will be following the progress of this review and subsequent Planning Bill with interest.”
This has generated passions on both sides of the argument