Trump - the great environmentalist* - and hypocrite.

* according to Trump

Today we have the news that Trump has lost his appeal to the UK's Supreme Court in his attempt to halt the development of the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.  Good.    This development, held up by over two years by Trump's legal games, is not merely an offshore wind farm producing renewable energy but 'will allow offshore wind farm developers and associated supply chain companies to test new designs, prove existing products and receive independent validation and accreditation before commercial deployment.' (Note 1).  This is an important part of the transition of Aberdeen from Oil City to Energy City. 

But apart from my natural joy in a defeat to Trump, I want to talk about his hypocrisy.   The Supreme Court judgement says

'TIGC does not dispute that (subject to an argument about the final words of the condition, which I discuss below) condition 7 requires that the development be constructed and operated in accordance with,among others, the environmental statement and the supplementary environmental information statement.' (Note 2)

Trump style sensitive development

But TIGC itself ignores disregards and simply bulldozes away Conditions at Menie. 

One is in regard to a monitoring group supposed to oversee the development as a whole - known as MEMAG (Menie Environmental Management Advisory Group).    'Aberdeenshire councillors Paul Johnston and Martin Ford have been advised that the Menie Environmental Management Advisory Group (MEMAG) is still not operating, though it is a requirement of the legal agreement associated with the planning permission for a golf resort on the Menie estate.' (Note 3)

The operation of MEMAG is not just a planning condition; it is part of the legal agreement underpinning the development at Menie. (Note 4)

But here's the rub :

1.  Trump has demonstrated that his deep pockets means he is willing to take spurious arguments all the way to the Supreme Court and frankly Aberdeenshire Council hasn't such deep pockets.  

2. Aberdeenshire Council must have known that MEMAG wasn't operating : I've correspondance from mid 2012 when it still existed and more from mid 2013 when it wasn't.  And they have a representative on MEMAG.  



Well over two years to spot there is a problem is not exactly careful monitoring of this sensitive development. 



Note 1: http://corporate.vattenfall.co.uk/projects/wind-energy-projects/european-offshore-wind-deployment-centre/

Note 2: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2015-0160-judgment.pdf

Note 3: http://aberdeengreens.org.uk/news/advisory-group-lost-in-the-rough 

Note 4: Extract from Legal Agreement between Aberdeenshire Council and Trump:

7. MEMAG
7.1 Prior to the carrying out of the masterplanning exercise required in terms of Condition 3(i) of the Planning Permission, the Developer shall establish MEMAG in consultation with the Council.
7.2 The remit of MEMAG shall be to provide advice to the Developer and the Council in respect of:
a) "best practice" environmental management and operation;
b) monitoring of the environment including ecology;
c) the minimisation of unanticipated adverse changes in addition to those already recognised in the Environmental Impact Assessment;
d) Full compliance with the relevant conditions attached to the Planning Permission and related reserved matters approvals.
7.3 The membership and structure of MEMAG shall be as set out in Appendix 6-6 of the Environmental Statement, the terms of which are set out in Schedule 3 of this Agreement.
7.4 The policy committee of MEMAG shall agree the locus and maximum estimated costs of their operations and activities, including the cost of administrative and secretarial support on a three year rolling basis.
7.5 For the avoidance of doubt, MEMAG shall operate as an advisory body only and shall not have the power to veto any proposal or action proposed by the Developer or the Council;
7.6 The Council, as planning authority, shall remain responsible for the statutory development management of the Site
7.7 The Developer shall be responsible for the total costs of MEMAG's operations and activities including the cost of administrative support and any professional or other fees and outlays incurred by MEMAG.

National disgrace, scoundrel and extremist

The untouched dune system.
The mobile sand sheet moved 5-15m north each year, leaving behind a time series of botanical
colonisation, one of the finest examples of such in northern Europe.

I'm often asked why this blogs normal title is National disgrace, scoundrel and extremist.  This phrase evokes to me a significant change in my political life.  And explaining that might also explain how money-politics works. 

In 2005, I was approached by representatives of Trump who wanted to outline to me, as local councillor, their plan to turn the shooting estate of Menie into a golf resort.  What they outlined was a 250 bedroom hotel, a golf course, maybe some staff accommodation and perhaps some other housing.  At this stage, it was clear that they'd been in discussions with the council planners and up to Chief Executive level for some time.

In March 2006, they went public with an announcement that they were in May going to submit an application for a 250 bedroom hotel, two golf courses and a holiday home complex, valued at £300 million, creating 400 jobs and in piled the local business interest saying this would put the north-east of Scotland on the map with Shiona Baird, Green MSP being the only cautionary voice.   

By the summer, the resort has grown to a £1 billion investment with a 450 bedroomn hotel and a thousand holiday homes.  Even more ra-ra from local business interests - obviously £1 billion is three times better than £300m - and there couldn't possibly be any downsides - could there?.

The resort proposal

When finally submitted in November 2006, the resort consisted of a 450 bedroom hotel, 950 holiday apartments, 36 golf villas and a village of 900 open market houses.

Now as councillor, you are stuck with making no comment on planning applications, as you could be deemed to prejudge the application.  So silence from me and meanwhile an enormous PR effort.

In the summer of 2007, I was lobbied by both local MP, Malcolm Bruce to the effect of 'You must pass the Trump thing, else the SNP will get the credit' and in favour of Trump by the then local MSP Nora Radcliffe. It was clear that the Trump PR machine was working at all political levels.  The Scottish Government has already added Trump to Global Scots - a group meant to promote Scotland's interests abroad.   MPs and MSPs had been intensively lobbied.  So had many -but not all - councillors.  And the business and tourist community had been fully briefed and were raising their voice loudly in support. 

Trump 'sensitively' resculpting the sand
dunes to make his golf course.

The problem with the application was simple: it trashed - literally bulldozed - a site of scientic interest in order to build a hotel and holiday complex.  And it built 900 houses on farmland where no village had been planned into order to pay for it.  Talk of £1 billion pound investment was fantasy - it was the sale of open market housing paying for the development.  Lots of environmental damage.  A thousand, mainly low pay,  jobs - in a area where unemployment was less than 1%, house prices are high and there is a shortage of affordable housing.  None would be included in the 'exclusive' Menie estate development.

In October 2007 there was a planning hearing lasting some 5 hours and in November, there were two meetings, first of the local Area Committee which approved the development and then famous Infrastructure Services Committee where Martin Ford used his casting vote to turn down Trump rather than sending the applicaion back for renegotiation - few councillors wanted to grant outright. 

And that was when all hell let lose.

The leader of the Council vowed 'I will do everything in my power to keep this application alive'.  The media went in to frenzy mode.  Martin took the brunt but I answered the phone to media and did countless interviews that day.   At 8am the following morning, I was scheduled to do a live interview with Radio Scotland.  A woman appeared on my doorstep shortly before this and, shouting obsenities at me, tried to assult me on my own doorstep.  I was too shaken to do the interview.   It was awful.  Thousands of emails.  Front page of the local newspaper with Traitor as the headline.  

By the end of the following week, Martin was no longer the chair of the Infrastructure Services Committee, the application had been called in by the Scottish Government - an unprecendented step for an application that had already been properly determined - and there was a deep rift in the LibDems on Aberdeenshire between those that opposed Trump and those that supported him.

Aberdeenshire Council agreed to permit a 5m tall bund
to built around the Leyton Cottage on the Menie estate

I battled on, doing my job as councillor, especially to protect the rights of the Menie residents not be be harrassed and hemmed in and to maintain open public access to the Menie Estate (see here and here).

It was at this period when Donald Trump, a bit touchy at my opposition, wrote an open letter to the press (and sent me a copy some 6 hours later) where he called me a national disgrace, scoundrel and extremist.  I am patently none of those things - but I rather like the accolade from this birther and climate change denier.   
 
Eventually the rift in Aberdeenshire Council grew so deep and the behaviour of some councillors was so vile, that I left the LibDems, followed by Martin.  Martin joined the Greens immediately: I didn't join the Greens until October 2009.  I loved the welcome I got.  Linda Hendry, who I'd known for years from when I lived in Edinburgh said 'You've taken your time', which I took as a welcome and an indication that she'd regarded me as a green for a long time.  It was coming home.

What happenned at Menie was simple.  Lots of people, whose job it was to contain a crocodile, didn't do their job.  The zookeepers helped the crocodile rather than keeping it in its enclosure.  Why? Because they were blinded by a slick PR campaign and the idea that a couple of golf courses could replace the oil industry.  Laughable, if it wasn't so sad. 

But out of a very horrible time comes good:  

People know who I am.  I am still recognised and approached by people who tell me that I did right in regard to Trump - including by some who say they thought I was wrong at the time but now understand.

People know what I stand for.  I spent weeks looking at the evidence.  The 'right' of the matter was very clear to me at the time and I haven't changed my mind.  And I was left as one of the few voices raised to oppose Trump.  People - the Menie residents - and the environment matter.  And the economy, while important, must make sense in terms of actual benefit and actual investment not just be a matter of £000000000.

And they know I mean it.  Trump doesn't cope with No very well - he doesn't often meet it.  He tried every trick to intimidate me.  It wasn't pleasant but it didn't work. I survived and can smile about it now.  It's good to know that when presented with a choice, I did what was right not what was easy. 

Local - Experienced - Proven

The fallout thereafter at Menie is documented on this blog (Earlier material was lost as I blogged on the LibDem's own platform).  Click on Menie or Trump in the Cloud to the right to read more.  And if you want a fuller, less personal picture, then there are excellent papers by Martin Ford and Andy Wightman.

Tripping Up Trump continue to support the Menie residents.

Trump continues to harrass the residents.  Please support them on the Tripping Up Trump Facebook page.  While a golf course is built and Menie House and the adjacent steadings have been converted to holiday accommodation, the club house is about a third of the original size.   The Menie development hasn't been a success and Trump is now stamping his mark on classic Turnberry and Doonbeg in Ireland.    

Local Planning? Let's not bother.

Aberdeenshire Council has debated and approved new planning policies for inclusion in its proposed new local development plan (LDP). The policies in the Local Plan had been developed through a lengthy process of public consultation, consideration by Area Committees but were then redrafted to comply with revised Scottish Government planning policy, published in June 2014, and later guidance.

Planning documents used to be weight tomes - an inch or more thick A4 document - and then more documents with details of conservation areas etc. 

It looks like the Proposed Local Plan will be about 50 pages long, with another 10 pages showing detail of green belt boundaries and another couple of dozen pages with details of phasing of house allocations and details of conservation area limitations.

It is remarkable how very slim local plans have become.

While concise policy is helpful to everyone, this Local Development Plan departs from the national polices on only two issues:

• a more cautious approach to flood risks and, in response to our very high property prices, and
• a significant requirement for affordable housing contributions from larger developments.  

That's great forward planning for flooding and might stop some of the mistakes of the past and we certainly need more affordable housing in the very expensive Aberdeen Housing Market Area.

But I worried that with just these two variants, this local plans isn;t fully reflecting all our local circumstances and priorities.

If this trend to merely echoing national policy continues, then perhaps planning will go the way of police and fire with everything controlled from the centre.

This centralising approach is entirely contrary to Green principles which focus on local responses to local circumstances.   Beware! 

No thought for cyclists

Shortly, to the north of Aberdeen, there will be oodles of money spend dualling the A90 from Balmedie to Tipperty and starting to build the AWPR.   

You'd like to thing that those in charge as well as thinking about motorists would spare a thought for other road users.  Everyone knows that designing things right int he first place is cheaper than retrofitting later. 

It can be done - look at the path coming off the away from the
feeder lanes.  So build in.  So hard - and expesive to retrofit.

But no.  The new A90 junctions at Balmedie and Blackdog will be grade seperated junctions - like motorway jucntions, designed for motorised vehicle to accelerate into the flow of traffic and decelerate only as they start to turn left.    Great for fast moving traffic. 

But lethal for cyclists.

There are cyclists who regularly use the A90.  Their needs have simply not been included in the design process.

Transport Scotland point to NESTRANS who point to the Councils.

I've news for them - safety of all road users is the responsibility of all of them.
Let's hope they don't learn the hard way.

More details at
http://aberdeengreens.org.uk/news/campaigners-angered-by-lack-of-thought-for-cyclists and
http://aberdeengreens.org.uk/news/green-campaigners-highlight-need-for-cycling-investment and even - the Aberdeen Evening Express - http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/local/call-to-consider-cyclists-in-aberdeen-to-tipperty-a90-upgrade-plans-1.814916

Housing Allocation Information

A short while ago, I worried about proposed changes to Council House Allocation Policy.

Part of the justification given for the charges is

"the reasons behind the proposed changes are primarily to ensure the Council makes best use of
its stock and to give applicants realistic housing options. If you look at the attached spreadsheet for Formartine it shows that out of the 24 settlement 5 have a stock of 3 or less houses; 9 had no turnover in 2010/2011 and a further 8 had turnover of only 1 or 2 houses. While allowing applicants to chose from 24 settlement may appear to offer choice, in reality it is misleading in that there is either no or very little turnover in many of these settlements."

But over 40% give the reason for refusal in Formartine as Not Area Desired.  Just how does forcing people to specify a larger area help this?

Reason	%
Garden unsuitable	1.3
Heating	2.6
No longer require housing	10.4
No reason given	1.3
No response within 5 working days	7.8
Not area desired	42.9
Not ready to move	18.2
Property type unsuitable	2.5
Property unsuitable	13.0

Wouldn't it be better to be honest with people about the (lack of) houses available across the area:

Formartine	1 bed	2 bed	3 bed	4 bed
AUCHEDLY			1
AUCHTERLESS			4
BALMEDIE	9	10	2
BARRAVALE			1
BEREFOLD			2
CAIRNHILL			5
COLLIESTON	3	1
CUMINESTOWN	11	21	14	1
DAVIOT	3	2	4
ELLON	134	92	51
FOVERAN			3
FYVIE	32	20	11
KINHARRACHIE			1
METHLICK	20	17	4
NEWBURGH	12	10	13
OLDMELDRUM	50	56	10	4
PITMEDDEN	14	25	22
POTTERTON		11	15
ROTHIENORMAN	24	25	8
TARVES	29	14	6	5
TIPPERTY		3	4
TURRIFF	99	130	66	2
UDNY GREEN	7	2	2
UDNY STATION	17	16	7

and ask them to pick enough areas where they would accept a house as possible, pointing out that the total turnover last year was only 82 houses against a waiting list of 951.

Or does the council think that prospective council house tenants are too stupid to figure out that where houses are in short supply, their odds of getting offered anything is close to snowball in hell - but that if they choose places with some stock, there is a better chance?

More cuts and more straightjackets for local government.

Today I was at a Scrutiny and Audit Committee meeting where it was clear that over £400,000 of this years budget cuts would not be achieved ... And because some of this was primary school closures with the saving in futures years being over £2 million next year and a further £1 million in subsequent years, the consequences for future years are significant. Apart from the lack of a robust educational case for the planned closures, the stopper was the Scottish Government deciding that no rural primaries would be allowed to close.

Now John Swinney is saying that councils will again not be allowed to raise council tax ...

With the Council Tax freeze, councillors were left to decide what to cut. When ministers decided that some areas for saving were off limits, they then directed the cuts to other areas. And now the cuts will continue deeper than ever.

When I first stood a friend said "remember, Debra, that councils really can only do what government tells them to do and then it is compulsory'. She was only a quarter joking - the freedom to do things for the benefit of the citizen has always been limited.

Now the room to manoeuvre is being limited for as much as the next 5 years.   It's not an attractive prospect for Councillors doing little more than decide where the axe shall fall.  Fred Macauley on Radio Scotland this morning joked that perhaps the current 32 councils should be merged into one.  If the Scottish Government does not increase the independence of councils both in terms of what they are allowed to do and how they raise the funds to do it, then maybe Fred is right.

Democracy fails in Aberdeenshire: Unnecessary cuts forced through

LibDem Council Leader Anne Robertson and
"opposition" SNP leader Joanna Strathdee
discussing the days business in the Council
Chamber as the meeting starts.

Aberdeenshire SNP, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors have again behaved undemocratically and dictatorially after voting to prevent debate on a proposal by my group on the Council not to make planned cuts in the budget for primary school classroom assistants and visiting specialist teachers.  

The stifling of debate prompted the entire Democratic Independent Group of councillors to walk out of today's Aberdeenshire Council full council meeting.

Rather than debate the DIGs fully costed proposals, the ConDemNats seemed to be determined to squash even discussing alternatives to cutting school assistants. Proposals to make cuts deeper were accepted with no problem. Discussion on avoiding cuts was not allowed, even through it could easily have been done.

The Council was debating setting its revenue budget for 2011/12. Cuts totalling £27 million had been voted through at the full council meeting on 25 November 2010. The Council's Liberal Democrat, Conservative and SNP councillors moved motions to increase the cut to the primary classroom assistant budget.

When Cllr Martin Ford, on behalf of the Democratic Independent Group, rose to propose that the classroom assistant budget be spared from cuts, it was ruled he could not make the proposal unless two-thirds of councillors agreed to suspend Standing Orders.

Democratic Independent Group councillors Mark Cullen, Martin Ford,
Paul Johnston, Debra Storr and Sam Coull were disgusted that the Council
refused to  even listen to their proposals to reduce damaging education cuts

Cllr Ford moved the suspension of Standing Orders, appealing to the council to allow an open and democratic debate on this important issue. Only six councillors voted to allow the issue to even be discussed.

At that point the Democratic Independent Group expressed their disgust at the councils undemocratic behaviour and walked out.

The Democratic Independent Group wanted to substitute a cut in the unadopted roads budget, which is little used, for the cut in the primary school budgets.

Commenting Cllr Martin Ford said “I am appalled at the council's refusal to allow open debate. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to propose further cuts in classroom assistants – but seeking to stop the cuts is now allowed.  This is completely one-sided.  These school staff cuts could and should have been stopped today.

Cllr Paul Johnston said “Aberdeenshire Council sank to a new low today. They made a cut in primary education that they did not need to make. They had the money and will now not reverse their decision.”

Cllr Sam Coull added “Teaching and education in the primary schools just got a whole lot more difficult today.”

When a consultation means nothing

Yesterday, the consultation period for Aberdeen City's new Local Development Plan finished and I know that lots of people, concerned about proposed developments to fill in Union Terrace Gardens, force a new road through Berryden and Tillydrone to connect to a 3rd Don Crossing and build 1500 houses and a Stadium at Loirston Loch will have made representations.  I just hope that City councillors treat their efforts with more respect than I saw today at Aberdeenshire's Formartine Area Committee.

Now under the new planning regime, the Council can't itself make changes to the Plan at this late stage.  But it is open to the Council to indicate to the Reporter which suggested modifications it really dislikes (and why), which it could live with if necessary and which it really doesn't mind at all.  If the Reporter then finds that changes are necessary, consequential changes can then be in accordance with the Councils wishes.  Without this "red, amber, green" signposting, the Reporter just has to assume that the Council doesn't care.

Now it was clear that at least three of the four Ellon councillors, including me, were relaxed about letting the proposed development at Foveran happen earlier.   The argument made in the representations was that the larger development was needed to build the necessary infrastructure, especially sewerage.   So we will now find that this development which is modest in total scale and therefore might actually be deliverable in the current economic climate, will be delayed until the larger project is permitted.  Crazy.

For information, the majority of my colleagues voted to "Instruct officers to defend the proposed plan against all other unresolved objections at the forthcoming examination".

I, seconded by my colleague Paul Johnston wanted to recognise that the proposed plan was the settled will of the council but ask officers to note the following comments in framing the Council's response to the representations.  We were, of course, defeated.

We wished to have comments in regard to Foveran, Oldmeldrum, Tarves, Balmedie West and Blackdog noted.  (PJ - have I missed anything?)

Another day at the office - another knife in the back

Yesterday my ward colleague Cllr Rob Merson (SNP) sprang an emergency motion to remove me as Vice Chair of the Formartine Area Committee.  To my astonishment, Rob was unable to clearly articulate what the emergency was - but the Chair Cllr John Loveday (LibDem) agreed to take the motion.  And the motion was passed.

Cllr Merson cited comments I have made about my colleagues indecisiveness re the siting of a new Ellon Academy and my failure to attend some site visits as the reasons for my removal as Vice Chair.  I don't think these have anything to do with me as Vice Chair.  And indeed I have received no complaints or even adverse comments regarding my role as Vice Chair.

So what motivated Cllr Merson and the other Formartine Councillors to act in this way?

I know Cllr Merson doesn't like me mentioning him on this blog (see comments to post below).  And of course we have political differences.

But I think this is simply a continuation of the divide on the Formartine Area Committee post Trump.  Faced with a planning application at Menie, my colleagues are prone to saying things like "We must press ahead as quickly as possible with this development".  No.  We have a duty to scrutinise all proposals and ensure that the conditions of the permission granted by the SNP government are complied with.

Not being Vice Chair will not stop me doing that job.  And it will not stop me speaking out to protect the Menie residents whose homes remain under threat because my colleagues refuse to rule out compulsory purchase and keep giving the Trump Organisation every reason to believe that they can ask and it will be given.

Myself as Vice Chair (may 2007 to 31st August 2010) in a display at the area office.

Aberdeenshire - Final Local Development Plan

The Aberdeenshire Development Local Plan was agreed by the Council on 24th June.  I did not vote for it but a future post - or perhaps posts - will talk about the issues.  After all, we have until 1st October to lodge our representations on the plan.  My previous post talked about the form required for representations.  This post will discuss the form of the plan itself.

Instead of one document, the Plan has been published as a plan containing just 14 polices, 6 maps and a schedule. One of my colleagues described the plan as vacuous - there is so little detail in the Plan itself that it is difficult to see what objections there could be.  Most of the detail is in the Supplementary Guidance.

In addition to the Plan there are (currently) 51 pieces of Supplementary Guidance, 6 of which are Settlement Maps for each Area within Aberdeenshire and the rest give details on the 14 polices.

Therefore, it is likely that if you wish to make a representation about anything you will need to make two representations - one for the policy in the main plan and one for the relevant Supplementary Guidance.

Aberdeenshire has provided two forms (in two forms, pdf and online), one for the Plan and one for Supplementary Guidance.   But as you are not required to make your representation on the specified form, I would suggest that you  make one representation per issue covering both the Plan and the Supplementary Guidance.  If you follow the 7 required pieces of information from the Schedule 4 form, you will have provided all the necessary information.   The Council can then cross reference your one representation into two parts to cover the Plan and the Supplementary Guidance. 

Over the summer, I'll post some comments on the content of the plan itself.  Remember, you only have until 1st October to make you voice heard.