New figures have revealed that the Scottish Government has overruled more than half of the planning decisions taken by local authorities, when applicants take their planning appeals to Scottish Ministers.
The figures uncovered by the Scottish Conservatives show that so far this year, 77 of the 145 planning appeals have been “allowed” by the Scottish Government, despite local councils originally rejecting the submissions. Among the decisions appealed to ministers include windfarms, mobile phone masts and housing developments.
Local MP, David Mundell said the figures are proof of the SNP’s centralising agenda, and its distrust of local accountability.
Mr Mundell said – “It’s clear the Scottish Government doesn’t trust local councils with planning decisions here in the South of Scotland. Instead of local accountability we get centralised decision making. My views on the subject of windfarms are well known: enough is enough. The Scottish Government now needs to follow the UK Government lead and put local people in charge of planning decisions on onshore wind. It cannot be right that communities south of the Border can say a decisive ‘no’ to new developments but local communities in our area remain powerless to stop them.”