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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A planning application presented to Highland Council by a local celebrity has attracted objections from seventeen community councils as well as members of the public and Inverness Civic Trust.
The proposal is out with the LOCAL PLAN and would affect the settings of a listed building.
The statutory Public Notice advertising the proposal along with fourteen others was .buried away. from public view in the sport section of a newspaper. The Council was alerted to this corruption of the due planning process but failed to correct the matter.
An important SAC Report was introduced by the applicant to embellish his application but was found to contain material detrimental to his proposal and was withdrawn from public scrutiny within the planning service.
The public asked the planning service to gain further information from the applicant in light of the SAC report but the request has been denied.
The planning service department responsible for advertising the Public Notice in relation to the Listed Building settings was unaware that the development would sit within the curtilage of a listed building and took no action to correct matters after the mistake was exposed to them.
On two occasions, Westhill community council was denied information regarding this application until they made representations to the planning service.
Recorded evidence clearly suggests that Highland Council, under the stewardship of Mr John Rennilson and Alistair B Dodds presided over an application that is tarnished with corruption that has worked against the public interest, an interest that the Council is meant to represent. Bogbain 14-6-06
Cc Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Editors Desks www Bogbain.com
Second draft of evidence for submission to Highland Council Planning Hearing and www.Bogbain.com web site, concerning proposals from Mr David Sutherland to build on the Bogbain landscape.
Dear Councillors
You will soon be asked to vote on plans to erect new buildings on the historic and stunning landscape at Bogbain of Inshes above Inverness. The area commands magnificent views of the Moray Firth, The Black Isle and the blue hills of Ross-shire. The proposal is contrary to the Local Plan and many folk would suggest that such a development would affect the setting of a listed building. Bogbain Farmhouse, built 1832.
Recorded evidence suggests that there has been a grave degree of corruption exercised in the process of this application and at this moment the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is conducting an investigation into the affair. The result of the SOPS investigation will be made public in due course but I will record essential facts of the case here so that councillors can put their own interpretation on the integrity of the matter and vote accordingly.
This planning application was first discussed at a meeting of Strathnairn Community Council in Farr Hall on 23-1-06. When the matter arose on the agenda, a local resident suggested that as he had not seen the application advertised in the Public Notice section of our local newspaper then there was probably nothing contentious about the application. Members assembled round the council table agreed with the local resident commenting that they had not seen any Public Notice on the matter. To counter the suggestion from the local resident I suggested that as the Highland Council was under such a great siege from development and probably overloaded with work then perhaps there had been an oversight on the part of the Council Planning Department team and everyone agreed with that suggestion. As well as the eight or nine councillors gathered round the council table in the hall that night the meeting was also attended to by the Daviot Church of Scotland Minister. A retired VAT Inspector. A Representative from Forrest Enterprise. A local business woman, myself, and local Highland Councillor Kathleen Matheson. This was a fair cross section of a community gathered together to represent the Community interest.
Nobody had seen the Public Notice in our local newspaper.
The Community Council then agreed to write to Mr John Rennilson Director of Planning at Highland Region expressing their concern for any building developments on the Bogbain landscape and pointing out that the proposal was contrary to the local plan. During the week that followed, I made many representations to Highland Region Planning Department asking why the application had not been advertised as being contrary to the setting of a listed building. The farmhouse built 1832. The planning office responded saying that the matter had been advertised in a Public Notice as it was contrary to the local plan.
Exasperated by this conflict of views, I went into the Newspaper office and examined a copy of the 13-1-06 publication but could find no sight of any Public Notice advertisement at all. Eventually, I turned to the rear pages and the sport section and I was astonished to find it there.
Over the weekend I took councilling from many quarters until intrigue sent me back again into the archives of the newspaper office. Digging through all the Friday publications, and going as far back as January 2005. I found that of the fifty-five publications published in that period, the thirteenth of January 2006 was the only publication with a Public Notice published in the sport pages. I sent a letter of complaint to Mr Rennilson regarding the " buried away" Public Notice I sent a letter of complaint to Mr Polson, saying that the planning application should have been published in a Public Notice because the proposed development would affect the setting of a listed building.The Bogbain farmhouse.
While the application is contrary to the local plan that is in place to stop such Development, the record shows that councillors often pay scant regard to the local plan in their deliberations, and of course the local plan changes through time leaving the landscape vulnerable and exposed to development. If this present application could be opposed on the strength that it would affect a listed building then that would set a president for opposing any later applications for similar development proposals. I got an immediate response from Mr Polson who arranged to meet me on the same day that I faxed him.
He dismissed the listed building issue saying that the matter had been considered before the advert was placed and that his department had decided that the development would not affect the listed building setting. I told him that he was making a grave misrepresentation to me because Nicola Drummond, the case officer in charge of this planning application at that time, did not even know that the farmhouse was listed until I told her so, after the application had been advertised .So how could she have considered the matter if, as she admitted to me, she was ignorant of the fact that the farmhouse was a listed building?
Mr Polson then tendered a very robust defence for the improper setting of the Public Notice in the newspaper stressing that I was simply reading too much into the affair. I had to repeat my argument to him several times before he eventually agreed to instruct the newspaper to do the job properly. Then he dismissed the issue as a little joke. I insisted on viewing a copy of his letter of instruction to the newspaper and was disappointed to find that in fact he simply advised the Editor that Highland Council had received a complaint from a member of the public regarding the positioning of the Public Notice and ended leaving any further action to the discretion of the newspaper. I understand that his letter failed to attract an acknowledgement from the newspaper.
On the fifth of March I phoned Mr Rennilson, because he was not responding to my letters to him calling for the Public Notice to be advertised in the proper section of the newspaper. He advised me that the applicant had now submitted a " New Application". Those were Mr Rennilsons exact words and he advised me to go and examine a Scottish College of Agriculture Needs Assessment that was now on public view supporting the "New Application" in the Highland Council Planning Office in Church St Inverness. He assured me that the application would now be advertised again because of "further information" that had been submitted by the applicant. I expressed my concern that the new application might probably invalidate objections that had already been recorded against the initial development proposals but he assured me that my fears were unfounded and indeed on the fifteenth of March he wrote to me saying. " I will seek to ensure that the Area Planning Manager takes forward all the objections already received as valid objections to the application as advertised on Friday". Visiting the Planning Office the very next day, I could find no trace of any "further information" in the Public Office file.. A member of staff eventually found a SAC report dated Feb 2006 but the two accompanying copies of the report were dated June 2005.
Evidence suggested that this report was simply being used as an excuse to re advertise the planning application in a manner that would save the newspaper and Highland Council from embarrassment The report stated that in order to sustain such an agricultural development with housing on the land, the applicant will need to diversify and build a farm shop, a shed for cows, a shed for calves and self catering accommodation for the tourist industry. From a simple proposal for two residential houses with a stable block, recorded evidence now suggested a larger development with around a dozen new buildings going on to the Bogbain landscape.
Such information was bound to prejudice the views of anybody who had any interest in preserving the landscape. It seems very strange that this information was ever released and one can only speculate that the applicants agent had never studied or even viewed the report before tendering it to the Planning Office . SAC reports are accepted without any argument by the Planning committee because most councillors are unqualified to challenge the technical detail in such reports. However. In this particular instance it looks as if the applicant.s agent scored a bull.s eye shooting at a foot.
When I wrote drawing the matter of the need for additional buildings for the development to the attention of Mr Polson and Mr David Gray the case officer, they both admitted that they had not studied the SAC report. When I asked to see detailed plans for the farm shop, cow and calf sheds and holiday chalets I was told that such material could not be made available. While the Planning department may feel entitled to believe that they maybe corrected matters with a second publication of the applicant.s planning application, they have in fact remained in contempt of planning regulations by failing to publish the whole statutory Public Notice that contained fourteen other planning applications on the thirteenth of January 2006.
There is clear recorded evidence that the Director of Highland Council Planning Department acted with gross prejudice against the public interest by failing to advertise all fifteen planning applications in the customary business section of the local newspaper. The whole issue deteriorated even further when just some days later, I was made aware of the fact that the SAC report was not on view in the public file in Church St Planning Office. I visited the Planning Office and I inspected the file and found that the SAC report was indeed missing from it. There was still no sight of any drawings for the farm shop etc and still no site plans with red and blue coloured lines for boundaries.
The absence of coloured boundary plans had been brought to the attention of the planning department back in February but the matter remained neglected On the third of April, suspecting that some chicanery was being exercised in this planning application again, and accompanied by a colleague, I inspected the public file again but we could find no trace of the SAC report and no drawings for shop, sheds or chalets and no coloured site plan. Evidence unfolding before our eyes confirmed that this planning application was at the least incompetent and at worst, being corrupted by someone. It appeared that someone had stolen the report away from public view. Our representations to the receptionist led to an immediate interview upstairs with Mr Polson who had a file in his possession containing all three copies of the SAC report 'buried away' in it.
Mr Polson made a robust defence for the absence of the coloured boundary plan but eventually he agreed to chase the matter up. Mr Polson could not explain why or how the agricultural reports were not on public view. I stated that since the SAC report had not been on public view during the first eleven days of the statutory twenty-one day public objection period, then Highland Council had a statutory obligation to the public to advertise the Public Notice again. We left Mr Polson considering his position.
On the seventh of April I wrote to Mr Rennilson recording my findings and I asked him to call on the applicant to produce detailed drawings of the additional buildings that were outlined in the SAC report. I wrote. " Under the very unusual circumstances of this case, with the great level of deception that has been recorded and exposed, may I suggest that it is now incumbent on members of your department to protect their integrity by seeking clarification and further details from Mr Sutherland explaining all that he proposes to build on the Bogbain landscape."
He responded saying that the farm shop etc did not form part of the application currently before the Council for determination. He wrote " What Highland Council has to determine is a planning application for two residential properties and stables. No more and no less. In the event that there were proposals for a farm shop and self catering accommodation then a separate planning application would be necessary".
This now means that the statement that Mr Rennilson made to me on fifth of March, when he said a "new application had been received with a SAC report supporting it" was a very grave misrepresentation of the true facts of the matter. Westhill community council were deceived in the matter of the SAC report and responded with representations against the proposals that were outlined in the report. Lochardil community council did likewise. The case officer Mr David Gray seemed to be taking some of the report on board because he wrote to the SAC seeking a better interpretation on work units that the development might generate.
I wrote to Mr Rennilson on the tenth of May but I received no acknowledgement. I faxed a reminder to him on the twenty-third of May but got no acknowledgement I tendered an official complaint on this matter to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and an investigation is now in progress. I have called on Mr Rennilson to suspend this application pending the outcome of this investigation but on 29-5-06 received word that he is retiring from office very shortly.
On 13-6-06 I received a letter from Mr Alistair B Dodds Director of Corporate Services at Highland Council, saying that the matter had now been passed to his office. He wrote to clarify the Council.s planning hearings presentation procedure and he asked, "Would I please see copy of procedure enclosed". Nothing but the two page letter was enclosed so I was left to wonder where the copy could have been "buried away", in this instance. In his letter he also intimated that he was enclosing a copy of the Council.s complaints procedure, but by now Councillors will have guessed that the Complaints Procedure was "Buried Away" elsewhere. His letter ended by saying "I trust that this clarifies the Council's position". It certainly did. If I had any doubt regarding the level of incompetence or corruption that Highland Council are capable of exercising then doubt went out the door when the Head of Corporate Services took over control of this planning application. In response to my initial draft of this address to the planning committee Mr Dodds advised me. "Considerations that are not related to planning are not material to the determination of the application and will not be taken into account by the Committee members". I should have thought that an exposure of the corruption exercised in this application, that can be corroborated and endorsed by recorded evidence would be a material consideration for everyone involved in this planning application. It should be noted that along with several members of the general public, no less than seventeen local community councils have, or are in the process of tendering their objections and concerns against this building development. It is contrary to the Local Plan and will affect the settings of a Listed Building. In my last letter to Mr Rennilson I said. "Evidence clearly suggests that you are exercising stewardship over an application that is tarnished with corruption".
Mr Dodds has failed to refute my allegation so we must accept the fact that he accords with my comments leaving public confidence in his service at an all time low.
Mr Dodds also failed to respond to my allegation that Mr Rennilson had made a grave misrepresentation to me when he alleged that the applicant had lodged a "New Application".
Mr Dodds also failed to accept the fact that the Planning Department had accepted the SAC Report and had asked the SAC for more information in order to embellish it. Such information would obviously be for the benefit of the applicant and the detriment of the public. Unless the applicant provides further details of all the additional buildings that SAC regard as essential to sustain this development in the countryside then this whole planning process must be deemed inequitable and rigged against the public interest.
Mr Dodds has failed to accept that the standard of proper service to Westhill Community Council, in whose area the development is proposed, was seriously corrupted on two occasions. The application had been lodged with Highland Council on 21-12-05 but by their monthly meeting on 16-1-06, Westhill cc had still not received any notification regarding the application until I addressed the Council with the matter. The Minutes of the meeting read: R Inglis will contact the planning department for more details on this application and also express the concerns of the Community Council. The second occasion that the standard of service to Westhill cc was corrupted was when the planning department failed to send out details of the SAC Report to the Westhill secretary. Remember. The Report was only released after I made representations to the Westhill Community and the secretary Mr R Inglis made an application for a copy to the Planning department.
Mr Dodds has also failed to explain how or why the SAC Report was stolen from the Public file and "Buried Away" during the first eleven days of the statutory twenty-one day public viewing period. I know of at least two members of the public who inspected the public file in the first few days of its exhibition and failed to be informed that the SAC Report was missing. I took a witness with me into the public office to prove that the SAC Report was missing for the first eleven days of its exhibition period.
Mr Dodds has defended the position of the planning service by saying that Highland Council has no control over what page the Public Notice advert is placed. That might be true if there had not been such an element of corruption exercised in the placement of the advertisement. As soon as I reported the situation to Mr Polson I advised him that he had a responsibility to the public to ensure that the matter was corrected. Very strong evidence suggested that a deliberate attempt had been made by persons unknown to hide a very contentious planning application well away from the general public. After much argument Mr Polson had agreed to INSTRUCT the Newspaper to correct the matter and advertise the fifteen planning applications in the usual business spot of the Newspaper. The record shows Mr Polson simply intimated that he had received a complaint from a member of the public and left the correction of the offence to the discretion of the newspaper. He even failed to gain any acknowledgement for his comments.
Mr Dodds defended the failure of the planning service to advertise the application as affecting the setting of a listed building due to the distance of the development away from the listed farmhouse. Indeed he says that this was agreed after discussion with the Council.s Conservation Architect. Mr Dodds has forgotten the fact that three days after the application was advertised, the case officer for the application at that time Nicola Drummond confessed to me that she was unaware that Bogbain farmhouse was listed. According to my records. When the Council.s Conservation Architect arrived back from his holidays on 23-1-06,I challenged him on the listed building status of the old farmhouse and he advised me that he had become aware of the situation but had not been asked to comment by the planning control team. These facts are recorded in my e-mail to Mr David Gray dated 31-1-06. Recorded evidence can prove beyond any doubt that Mr Dodd.s understanding of the situation is based on a very grave misrepresentation of the facts of the matter.
Evidence clearly suggests that around a dozen or more buildings are now planned for the Bogbain landscape. I suggest a dozen because the SAC report does not specify how many self-catering units are needed to sustain the development.
At a recent planning seminar for community councils Mr Polson explained that the whole planning process was made up of checks and balances and our democratic process ensured that a correct balance was struck so that the planning committee could judge the merits or problems associated with a planning proposal. In this case we started with an application for three buildings on the landscape. For some reason or other the application was later embroidered with a SAC report. Maybe just to make it look more attractive. Such reports are often referred to as "Exceptional Needs" . However, in this case there is no such exceptional need with the Report ending simply saying. "It is highly desirable that such labour is accommodated at Easter Bogbain". Some credence was extended towards the SAC Report when planning wrote to SAC seeking clarification on the work unit value of the Bogbain development. This is information designed to help the developer yet when the public asks for some clarification regarding number of buildings needed to sustain the development the planning department refused to act in the public interest. History seems to be repeating what happened at Beaufort Castle recently when the community there was denied adequate information from the very same developer.
Mr Dodds has still failed to explain how or why the SAC Report was stolen from public view and defends the situation by saying that the "live file" is, and always has been open to the public. Perhaps Mr Dodds should appreciate the fact that Joe Public does not expect sensitive information to be withdrawn from public scrutiny just because the application has come from a local sports celebrity.
While the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman might generally insist on the Council's complaints procedure being exhausted before considering an investigation the record clearly shows that Mr Rennilson's involvement in this matter is exhausted.
Mr Dodds has made some attempt to defend the untenable position of his service department, but has failed miserably.
The clear and widespread evidence of deep corruption of this planning matter means that my tolerance and patience with the planning service is exhausted.
Annette Wilson
SPSO
4Melville St Edinburgh
EH3 7NS
Dear Ms Wilson Your Ref 200503316 16-6-06
I understand that you have taken over the above numbered complaint and are digesting the information already on the file. It might help you to put the matter in better perspective if I submit an update on the situation so I enclose a copy of new material just published today on our web site www.Bogbain.com.
You will see that the Director of Planning at Highland Council is resigning and cannot be held accountable for his department.s failure to regulate matters properly.
I have now had a letter from the Head of Corporate Services offering excuses for the situation but no offer or any suggestions for correcting the matter before this planning application comes in front of the planning committee next month. I have asked the Director of Planning to suspend this application until such time as you rule on my allegation that his Council has failed to control corruption that has blighted this proposed development application from day one.
Perhaps I should try and clarify the situation by listing simple Heads of Complaints 1 On being alerted to a corruption of a Statutory Public Notice in a local newspaper advertisement, regarding an important planning application. Highland Council failed to instruct the Newspaper to re advertise the matter where members of the general public might reasonably expect to see it.
2 On being informed that the proposed development would affect the settings of a listed building and should be advertised as such. Highland Council ignored the status of the building.
3 The Director of Planning made a serious misrepresentation when he alleged a "New Application" had been received by his office. No such thing had in fact happened.
4 Highland Council Planning Department failed to keep the local community council up to date with developments in the application creating a serious risk that the public would miss any opportunity to object or be time barred.
5 Highland Council Planning Department failed to exhibit an important Scottish College Of Agriculture Report during the first eleven days of a Statutory twenty-one day objection period.
6 When the dialogue with the Director of Planning became exhausted, the Head of Corporate Services at Highland Council tendered a clarification of his Council.s position but failed to offer any solution for correcting this corrupt affair or ask the applicant for further information.
7 Throughout this planning application Highland Council has displayed and exercised prejudice towards the developer and against the public interest.
I sincerely hope that this information can be of some assistance to you and allow you to exercise some immediate control over the rather irregular behaviour that is in evidence at Highland Council.
Yours sincerely. Brian MacGregor
Cc News Desks & www Bogbain.com
www Bogbain.com Mr Alistair B Dodds