I attended last Tuesday's Teviot and Liddesdale Area Committee meeting hoping to see common sense prevail regarding the proposed erection of eight flats and one dwellinghouse and formation of car parking at 9 Oliver Crescent.
I should have known better. After listening to Scottish Borders Council's planning officer Craig Miller describe the make up of the flats and house, building materials etc, he then announced that the goalposts had been moved again.
The first appli
cation had been refused on the basis of a lack of parking spaces.
The regulations state that 1.25 spaces are required for every two-bedroomed flat. This application, which they have passed with 10 parking spaces, comprises eight flats, each with two double bedrooms, and one three-bedroom house.
The point which Councillor Davie Paterson tried to raise regarding the private lane, along which access is required at all times, could be very interesting. I would like to know how you can build a three-storey block of flats without blocking the lane?
A quote from the same Area Committee on Tuesday, October 16, 2007: "More parking provision would be needed as there is an acute shortage of parking spaces in the area."
I was present at the meeting with the Scottish Government Reporter on July 6 last year when he refused to grant planning permission for eight flats with seven parking spaces. My question now is how can the council pass this application for eight flats and one house with 10 spaces?
To sum up, the meeting was a farce. In my opinion, the main objective was to get rid of an eyesore and get the developer to pay and to hell with parking congestion in Oliver Crescent. The decision to grant the application was probably made before the meeting started.
And the way some of our councillors voted on this application, I can only conclude that Scottish Borders Council's announcement that all planning applications will be decided by a committee at St Boswells, is the correct way forward.
