Borders Confidential

The 'Public Access' website detailing Scottish Borders Council Planning Applications carries this caveat:

NOTE: For reasons of confidentiality, Scottish Borders Council may choose not to display certain Planning Applications.

One wonders, does one not, what applications are to be shielded from public scrutiny in the Borders? WMD Installations? Nuclear Bunkers-might the IRA, for example, seek permission for a facility to put their weapons 'beyond use' outside Ireland.?

Huttonian knows of no examples of 'confidential' planning applications, but then he wouldn't, if they were confidential, would he?


There is one possible case where this rule might have been applied; Fishwick Special Branch's new Head Quarters. So secure was the planning process that the original application was shredded-before submitting to the committee-and for security reasons no copy was made. Moreover it was belatedly discovered that none of the councillors on the Area Committee had been security cleared so they would not have been allowed to see the planning application in any case, as it was classified Secret, Open Eyes Only and Loc Sen (Locally sensitive) The only planning official cleared to deal with classified documents, a certain Hajji Mustafa Ibrahim Renton was in Iran on holiday at the time (may still be there as there is no trace of him at Newtown St.Boswells when the Blog enquired under the Freedom of Information Act)

Planning Permission was therefore never given but as the secret plans for the facility were also destroyed and the exact site not allowed to be revealed to the builder it did not matter very much. So FSB still operate out of the spare room at the Hutton Think Tank Research Complex. Wherever

that may be.

(The image is possibly of one of the sites which may or may not have been considered for the new HQ. Or possibly not. Whatever)

Labels: Planning, Scottish Borders Council

  ¶ 10:44 AM