SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

If not, it appears you are not alone and it is not to late to have your say! Yet we only have a very short time frame in which to prove we have not been consulted and to call on the Scottish parliament to postpone the NPF process until we have been properly consulted.

On Monday the 15th of December communities that will be most affected by the national planning framework developments were outside the Scottish parliament calling for a halt to the NPF process until they have been consulted properly.

An evaluation of the consultation taken from a community perspective published by Clare Symonds states that the consultation process has not been carried out properly and has not achieved the standards required by the Government. It asks that the consultation process be reviewed and carried out again because it does not comply with the participation statement, which it is required to do according to the 2006 Planning Act.

Symonds, the author of the report said “The consultation process was not aimed at people whose lives will be affected by the developments but at business and people who know about the planning system. Most people have never heard of the NPF, yet it is the most important and influential planning document in Scotland. It is the duty of the Government to make people aware of its existence and give them a chance to have their views heard”.

Tam Brady who lives in Clydebank and will be affected by one of the 12 proposed national developments; “the expansion of Glasgow airport will have a massive effect on my life with the noise and air pollution it creates. I am not an expert in the planning system. We have taken part in all sorts of meetings and discussions, but we never heard about this document and how important it was”.

NPF2 threatens Scottish Action on Climate Change

The NPF 2 contains proposed national developments, which includes expansion of the high emission, carbon heavy industries. The development of which will put the targets set by the Climate Change Bill in great jeopardy and will have a very negative impact on our efforts in our communities to tackle climate change.

If you have not been consulted on the NPF 2 then please take action now.
For more information contact Clare Symonds at claresymonds@yahoo.com
Download the report [262KB PDF]

This entry was posted on 12 January 2009 at 8:40 pm and is filed under General news, SOCC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.