There was a furious row over planning the future of Cove and Kilcreggan last week, with community councillors accusing each of ‘waffle’, ‘aggression’ and ‘disrespectful’ behaviour.
It centred on a Local Place Plan which is the main aim of the villages’ Our Community project – launched two years ago with £170,000 of grant funding, this is is being managed by Cove and Kilcreggan Community Council in partnership with the Rosneath Peninsula West Community Development Trust.
Read more: Local Place Plans
Local Place Plans were introduced by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, with the aim of giving communities the opportunity to develop proposals for their local area. The Scottish Government says: “The aim is to significantly enhance engagement in development planning, effectively empowering communities to play a proactive role in defining the future of their places.”
Argyll and Bute Council says that LPPs will be taken into account in the preparation of its Local Development Plan – that is the key document which will zone land for housing, industry and other uses.
Community council secretary Sheelagh O’Reilly said that with work now under way on Argyll and Bute Council’s new local development plan (LDP3), this was the opportunity for the local place plan to be validated.
“I think it’s really important that the Our Community team, who are supposed to be leading at the moment the local place plan process, can inform the community what the process is, what the timing is, when the community consultations will take place, so that we can actually discuss and validate ourselves the local place plan for Cove and Kilcreggan in the next few months,” she said.
James McLean said the information was in a GANTT chart on the project website.
Ms O’Reilly said this was ‘waffle’ however.
“I have sat here and asked repeatedly for a timetable for the local place plan development work and the way you intend to consult the community, so that the community – not Our Community, the community – can engage with the local place plan,” she said.
“And we have had no firm engagement with this.
“The last meeting you had with the community was September last year.”
Mr McLean said this was disrespectful, and community council vice convener Ali Mills added: “From the point of view of someone who has been very involved with Our Community, we have been working extremely hard for two years on this and to be told that it’s waffle I find really distressing.”
Ms O’Reilly said £100,000 of public money had been spent in less than two years, adding: “The local place plan development is a very specific process.
“It’s about community consultations and at the moment we have not had any indication of the form and style of the local place plan that you, Our Community, are thinking of putting together. Nothing. And the last meeting was in September last year.”
Ms Mills replied: “I am finding this quite aggressive. It is quite upsetting, the way you’re talking to me.”
But Ms O’Reilly said she had found the attitude of a management team member aggressive when she had been asked to leave a meeting because she didn’t agree with what was being said.
John Auld, who is on the Our Community management team as well as being convener of the community council, said: “This has been asked of Our Community from the community council before on many occasions since September.
“The point is that there has been no response from Our Community back to the community council regarding that question.
“There is work still to be done, there has been nothing as far as I am aware done in the last month.
“There are still other issues to be resolved and looked at very shortly.”
A chart in the ‘community council documents’ section of the Our Community website shows outcomes being presented to the community in July, followed by further consultation if required and a final presentation to the community and Argyll and cute Council in March 2025.
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