BISHOPTON ACTION GROUP
c/o "Kilallan"
Sachelcourt Avenue
Bishopton
PA7 5AA
23rd February 2006
Dear Mr. Darracott,
Planning Process - Bishopton ROF
At a recent meeting of the Community Liaison Group, you were asked why Bishopton is being "processed" in a different manner to Johnstone, the only other Community Growth Area in Renfrewshire put forward in the Alteration to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan.
This question relates to the fact that plans for development at Johnstone will be considered through the Local Plan. This gives the population an opportunity to be involved in the plan making process and provides the right of appeal at a public inquiry, whilst Bishopton will be processed via an Outline Planning Application, following which the Local Plan will be retrospectively altered. This of course denies Bishopton community the right of an appeal and public inquiry, since there is no point in objecting at local plan stage once outline planning permission has already been granted. The developers, on the other hand, do have a right of appeal if they are not granted planning permission. We contend that the process being proposed for Bishopton is biased in favour of the developers and totally unjustified. We question also why the communities of Johnstone and Bishopton are being treated differently.
I understand that your response to the above question is that Bishopton has already had its public inquiry which took place between December 2003 and January 2004. However, at that time the local plan which had been published for public consultation made no mention of the nature and scale of the development and the people of Bishopton were totally unaware of the proposals by BAE/Redrow to build 2,500 houses, effectively doubling the population. On the contrary, the plan refers to a masterplanning exercise by BAE and states that "at the time of publication, specific proposals for the scale and nature of development had not been established by the site owner." If the scale of the development had been known by the public at that time, Renfrewshire Council would have received the same amount of objections as the Structure Plan has generated. It was only immediately after the BAE Systems exhibition in February 2005, when people finally knew the truth about the proposals, that there was a massive outcry. As you know, since then over 4,700 letters of objection have been received by the Structure Plan Manager from our small village in response to public consultation regarding the proposal to designate rural Bishopton as an Area of Urban Expansion/Community Growth Area.
It would also appear that Renfrewshire Council did in fact know about the true nature and scale of the development. In his findings, the Reporter wrote "there does not appear to be any deep-rooted hostility to the concept of a new settlement, possibly amounting to over 2,000 houses, although I am in no doubt that there would be vigorous opposition to the use (and the potential overloading) of facilities or infrastructure currently used by the existing community." This information is totally incorrect - Bishopton residents would have expressed "deep-rooted hostility" if they had been aware of the true nature of the proposals. We would question also why the figure of 2,000 houses was given to the reporter and was not given in the Local Plan. You will recall my letter of 1st August 2005 objecting to the finalised version of the Local Plan precisely because of this misinformation and misdirection.
Furthermore, Para 4.30 of the local plan states that "any proposed changes will be the subject of alterations to the structure plan and local plan". It does NOT say that alterations will be made retrospectively to the Local Plan and does not mention outline planning application.
In the light of the above, would you please clarify:
In view of the huge amount of opposition to this highly contentious proposal, and the fears and concerns that exist about our health and safety, it is even more important that Bishopton residents feel that they are being afforded their proper, fair and equitable rights via the official planning process.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Stewart Ferguson
Chairman
On behalf of Bishopton Group
cc:
Councillors on Renfrewshire Council Planning and Development Policy Board
Councillor Iain Langlands
Mr. Tom McCabe
Ms. Annabel Goldie
Mr. Bruce McFee
Ms. Joanne Lamont
Ms. Trish Godman
Mr. Ross Finnie
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