Community councils ‘extremely dismayed’

You may be aware that the five Fort William area community councils have reconvened their partnership and met prior to last week’s Lochaber Committee of the Highland Council which considered the draft local plan. We attended that Highland Council meeting and, although not permitted to speak, submitted a letter on the following lines.

‘We are very concerned by what may be a proposal to rubber stamp very substantial changes to the draft local plan. Kilmallie and Caol CC deliberately ran a public consultation on the original plan and folk made comments in good faith. They now deserve to be made aware of some very significant changes.

‘We were aware that the local plan was substantially delayed to allow Liberty to submit their proposals – we weren’t convinced that was a proper thing to do and many were concerned that it happened.

‘You are aware that council officials are already dealing with alleged planning breaches and of noise nuisance at Corpach and Annat. We are aware of some people selling and moving house because of noise. This is a real issue affecting families, not imagined.

‘Now we have the possibility of a deep water berth, liquefied natural gas storage and a gas pipeline through Corpach. These are fundamental changes. You cannot possibly ignore people’s right to know about these proposals and deny them the right to consider. It would be a potential affront to local democracy to ignore these changes and their implications and so we ask you to vote for 5.3, Option II and allow public consultation.

‘You delayed the local plan for Liberty, so now we ask you to delay for us.’

In spite of this, the Lochaber Committee of the Highland Council decided not to respond and allow public consultation.

Instead there is proposed to be a consultation on a ‘2040 Vision’ which is an entirely different thing; a local plan is important, has formal status and influences future planning decisions. We are extremely dismayed by this.

Chairs of Kilmallie, Ardgour, Caol, Inverlochy and Torlundy, and Fort William community councils.