Musings from the Merse
Friday, June 05, 2009
Bring in the Lumberjack; its ok
Back in the Borders-just in time to catch the latest Berwickshire News and to see that some things don't change including the Laird's attempts to add to his housing stock in greater Paxton. Having had his application for two bijou dwellings turned down on several occasions and even on appeal to the Scottish Executive he has managed to have the case reopened as reported here
It seems that one of the previous objections to the houses was that it would mean that some trees would have been cut down to allow them to be built. Or in Planning Speak :building on the land would result in "the loss of a woodland resource."
Quick Action by the Laird:
"To counteract this the nearby spruce trees were cut down in January".
Objection : Don't cut down trees to build houses
Trees cut down: Objection overruled
Odd that;
or am I missing something
Back in the Borders-just in time to catch the latest Berwickshire News and to see that some things don't change including the Laird's attempts to add to his housing stock in greater Paxton. Having had his application for two bijou dwellings turned down on several occasions and even on appeal to the Scottish Executive he has managed to have the case reopened as reported here
It seems that one of the previous objections to the houses was that it would mean that some trees would have been cut down to allow them to be built. Or in Planning Speak :building on the land would result in "the loss of a woodland resource."
Quick Action by the Laird:
"To counteract this the nearby spruce trees were cut down in January".
Objection : Don't cut down trees to build houses
Trees cut down: Objection overruled
Odd that;
or am I missing something
Labels: Border Planning, Inappropriate Development, Paxton, the Laird
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Un Happy Land Far Far Away
As a PS to yesterday's post Huttonian strongly recommends the article about Michael Martin's constituency where his son is the sitting MSP.
The febrile atmosphere of Westminster? Indeed; having worked many years in and out of Whitehall I can vividly remember the hothouse frenetic feverish atmosphere in which we all worked long hours but achieving what? No matter, you felt at the centre of things, 'exciting intoxocating' is right,and it used to give me a bit of a frisson to be able to say at some party in reply to the usual first question 'In the Foreign Office, actually' pursing my lips to discourage the next probing question, as if to convey, ' Her Majesty's secrets are safe with me'. Most people I met on the social round used to assume that all members of the FCO were spies and it was fun to let that thought ride, undenied. One genuine spook acquaintance when naively asked 'What exactly do you do?' used to put one finger against the side of his nose, smile enigmatically and ask the waiter for 'Another Dry Martini please-less stirred than the last'
Now deep in the Borders, my one way pad and poisoned Carnation spray handed back to Q,I feel very detached from Whitehall, Embra and even Newtown St Boswells. The Borders doesn't do politics with a big P and I doubt if many people around here have got too worked up about the expenses row, and fewer still will know or care who their Westminster MP is. Certainly they will all know the MSP, the ernegetic Mr Lamont who pops up all over the place but the Scottish Executive has a much more sensible arrangement over MSP's expenses although it can be abused as alleged when the Laird made headlines over the use of a family flat in Embra (See here for a refresher course-scroll down a bit)
Mind you if we were suddenly ethnically cleansed and transported at gun point to Martin and Son land as described in the Scottish Review we might feel a bit differently about goings on in the capital
Some one being asked, this morning, in Nairns about voting in the forthcoming European Parliamentary Elections replied 'What Elections are those?' -he may have been tempted to add 'What Parliament?' but was suddenly distracted by the sight of the Jim Clarke Rally Official Event Programme. 'Closing all those bloody road, Effing inconvenient'
Now that really matters
(Does anyone know what the image is? Not Farmer C's latest Tweed Side Pad. I thought not)
Labels: Glasga, Jim Clarke Rally, Speaker Martin Expenses, Spooks, the Laird
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Best Laird Schemes. The End?
Those of you who sympathise with the Laird's attempts to create a greater Paxton (or Poxton as a bloggee has called it) will be dismayed by the ruling referred to here The appeal to reverse a decision by the Scottish Borders Planning Department (another oxymoron) against the building of two bijou residences just outside the village on the upper Hutton road has been turned down. The grounds for refusal are a classic of planning Gobbledygook to do with road alignment and existing building blocks-not a mention of scrub land nor bull dozed copses. And for once it seems that neighbours with their objections have won the day.
Could it be that there is an inbuilt prejudice amongst the Planning Highheidyins as far as the Laird's schemes are concerned. And if so
Why?
(Answers on an A 3 sheet to the Hutton Think Tank: Wild Ideas Department)
Those of you who sympathise with the Laird's attempts to create a greater Paxton (or Poxton as a bloggee has called it) will be dismayed by the ruling referred to here The appeal to reverse a decision by the Scottish Borders Planning Department (another oxymoron) against the building of two bijou residences just outside the village on the upper Hutton road has been turned down. The grounds for refusal are a classic of planning Gobbledygook to do with road alignment and existing building blocks-not a mention of scrub land nor bull dozed copses. And for once it seems that neighbours with their objections have won the day.
Could it be that there is an inbuilt prejudice amongst the Planning Highheidyins as far as the Laird's schemes are concerned. And if so
Why?
(Answers on an A 3 sheet to the Hutton Think Tank: Wild Ideas Department)
Labels: Inappropriate Development, Paxton, Poxton, the Laird
Monday, August 11, 2008
SIR, - For the umpteenth time our mean-minded killjoy government has rejected Sir Alan Beith’s (and everyone else’s) call for dualling the A1 throughout Northumberland; Minister Tom Harris (who?) lists four spurious criteria for doing nothing about it.
The fifth criterion, of course, is that the territory through which the A1 runs in its semi-rural state includes Berwickshire and nowhere in this area is represented by New Labour.
It is unfair that despite almost 35 years service Sir Alan is not rewarded in the same way as 28 years service by another MP/MSP with almost all the A1 in East Lothian being dualled - something to do with red being preferred to yellow maybe
is this weeks star letter in the Berwickshire News
Joy apparently equates with the ability to speed through Northumberland!With great respect to the writer (name available for the curious) I an not sure how Sir A Beith, a MP for a (still) English constituency has any standing in rural Berwickshire matters? Its good to see the reference to the Labour MP later MSP for East Lothian who was 'rewarded,says the writer, for years of devoted committment to the party by being awarded the 'duelling' of those parts of the A1 which went through his constituency. Alert bloggees will recognise this paragon to be the Laird, only recently retired from East Lothian after what amounted to Peerless service (Bad Pun Intended) It should be remembered that before going to EL the Laird was MP slightly closer home-including 'rural Berwickshire' but when the constituency was split in two he skedaddled up North to avoid having to take on the Lib Dems. Wisely as it proved. But while there as the incumbent MP, the A1 remained resolutely unduelled-Red being as useless as Yellow.
It seems
(The image is of a Scottish Road. Probably not the A! but could well be in 'rural Berwickshire')
Labels: A1, Berwickshire, Roads, the Laird
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Scrubbing the Truth?
Cognoscenti of planning in this area will see from the Scottish Borders Council Planning website :
http://eplanning1.scotborders.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Consultation%20Reply-2085755.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=2085755&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1&appid=1001
that the Laird may be running into a spot of bother with an application to build a couple of bijou villas just outwith Paxton village. Apparently not everyone believes him 100% when he claims that his little development is to be on scrub land. Commentators (including the Hutton and Paxton Community Council, not to mention the neighbours) seem to think that the site is a rather nice little bit of immature wood land. (And one wonders if the L was in receipt of a grant for planting it a few years ago?)
One hates to resort to a cliche: but 'economical with the truth' seems to apply with some recent applications in this area-the now withdrawn one for the managers' house at Hutton Castle Mill-see previous posts-is a case in point. It seems silly for an applicant to be caught out on something which can be so easily checked-so with the planners apparently now on their way to look at the site it might be wise for the Laird to get planting:
some scrubs, presumably
Cognoscenti of planning in this area will see from the Scottish Borders Council Planning website :
http://eplanning1.scotborders.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Consultation%20Reply-2085755.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=2085755&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1&appid=1001
that the Laird may be running into a spot of bother with an application to build a couple of bijou villas just outwith Paxton village. Apparently not everyone believes him 100% when he claims that his little development is to be on scrub land. Commentators (including the Hutton and Paxton Community Council, not to mention the neighbours) seem to think that the site is a rather nice little bit of immature wood land. (And one wonders if the L was in receipt of a grant for planting it a few years ago?)
One hates to resort to a cliche: but 'economical with the truth' seems to apply with some recent applications in this area-the now withdrawn one for the managers' house at Hutton Castle Mill-see previous posts-is a case in point. It seems silly for an applicant to be caught out on something which can be so easily checked-so with the planners apparently now on their way to look at the site it might be wise for the Laird to get planting:
some scrubs, presumably
Monday, May 19, 2008
RETURN OF THE LAIRD
After a rather long absence from the development game the Laird is back-see http://eplanning1.scotborders.gov.uk/WAM/showCaseFile.do?appType=planning&appNumber=08/00776/FUL
And despite his frustration over the rejected Knowe's Close and other sites in down town Paxton and his inability to include potential housing estates in the Local Plan,
his Lairdship has now an application in for two pretty little bijou three bedroom establishments just to the west of Smiddy's Cottage on the upper Paxton Hutton road outwith the village boundary. The application talks about building on 'scrub land'
Well one man's scrub land is seemingly another's copse of fir trees-not yet mature and presumably a small scale Lairdian commercial venture now for the chop (npi) and concrete. More over according to the letters of objection from two of the neighbours there is a bit of a history to this site-application to build rejected before and an attempt to include it in the local plan also failed. It seems to be bristling not only with fir trees but also with planning difficulties.
When two or three are gathered in the Cross these days Potential Departures from Berwickshire Local Plan, Policy 7 tend to dominate the conversation.
Time gentlemen please and 50p in the Swear Box.
After a rather long absence from the development game the Laird is back-see http://eplanning1.scotborders.gov.uk/WAM/showCaseFile.do?appType=planning&appNumber=08/00776/FUL
And despite his frustration over the rejected Knowe's Close and other sites in down town Paxton and his inability to include potential housing estates in the Local Plan,
his Lairdship has now an application in for two pretty little bijou three bedroom establishments just to the west of Smiddy's Cottage on the upper Paxton Hutton road outwith the village boundary. The application talks about building on 'scrub land'
Well one man's scrub land is seemingly another's copse of fir trees-not yet mature and presumably a small scale Lairdian commercial venture now for the chop (npi) and concrete. More over according to the letters of objection from two of the neighbours there is a bit of a history to this site-application to build rejected before and an attempt to include it in the local plan also failed. It seems to be bristling not only with fir trees but also with planning difficulties.
When two or three are gathered in the Cross these days Potential Departures from Berwickshire Local Plan, Policy 7 tend to dominate the conversation.
Time gentlemen please and 50p in the Swear Box.
