A decision is due on the controversial Cammo housing development in Edinburgh. Will it restore faith in Scotland’s confusing planning policies?
Gary Bennett is looking at the traffic on Maybury Road, assessing the air quality, and feeling depressed. He fears it is about to get a lot worse because a planning decision on the controversial 670-unit Cammo housing development, west of Edinburgh, near the city’s airport, is due from Scottish communities secretary Alex Neil.
A planning reporter’s assessment has been on the minister’s desk since long before the general election. Bennett, chairman of the Cammo Residents Association, fears that delaying the announcement until after the vote means only one thing: bad news.
Cammo is one of eight residential development applications recalled (the equivalent of called-in in the English planning system) at appeal by Neil since he returned to the planning brief last November. Neil has already approved one Edinburgh application, for 173 homes on green belt land at the Edmonstone Estate, Old Dalkeith Road.
Bennett feels sorely treated. “We have tried dialogue with the minister, but were told we can’t talk to him until he has made a decision, so how can we explain how this application feels for our residents? We do not feel our voice has been heard, and that is unfair when developers are publicly pushing him to develop. It’s unfair, it’s not right,” he says.
The usual rage of angry residents? Not quite – Bennett’s anxieties about ministerial intervention are echoed within the Scottish property industry. Although it is delighted to see the government engaging with the country’s sclerotic planning system, there is not much enthusiasm for ministerial dictat.
Ministerial recalls on residential applications were rare, until recently. Derek Mackay, planning minister before Neil, refused to intervene on big residential applications, saying they were a local matter. Neil’s sudden about-turn has left observers feeling dazed.
John Hamilton, director at Winchburgh Developments and chairman of the Scottish Property Federation, says: “Planning authority performance is patchy, particularly in Edinburgh. It is a problem of political leadership and at officer level. There is a lack of communication with the national bodies responsible for transport, the environment, and so on.
“We would be better off resolving those problems. The minister is being decisive, but recalls are not a long-term solution. It is just not feasible to keep recalling. Initially, I think the property industry was pleased, but it is not sustainable and it is not a game-changer. The problem is much more complicated.
“The minister wants swift decisions, as does the property business, but this is not the solution.”
Gordon Thomson, associate in the Edinburgh office of Barton Willmore, says the Cammo decision will be a bellwether. “Recalls like this are unprecedented, and they come after the publication of the June 2014 Scottish Planning Policy, which insisted councils have an effective five-year housing supply and introduced the presumption in favour of sustainable development,” he says.
“Ministerial decisions on these eight recalls will show how the presumption should or should not be applied. We are all hoping for a steer and some certainty.”
In the meantime, Thomson is as sceptical as Hamilton about the wisdom of Neil’s move. “Planning by appeal is not a long-term solution. I do not think ministers will want to continue to do this,” he says.
“It does not provide clarity or consistency, either for developers or communities, and it is everything they were trying to avoid with the plan-led system introduced in the 2014 guidance.”
The Cammo decision will have implications for the latest slow-moving revision of Edinburgh’s local plan, already said to be 32,000 houses short of its 2024 target. The Cammo site was due to be listed as a preferred location for housing but local opposition – including opposition from Neil’s own SNP colleagues – has made that uncertain.
It could also signal a green light for a wave of large housing schemes, including West Craigs Ltd’s neighbouring 160-acre Maybury site, where 2,000 homes are planned.
Given the limited effectiveness and unlimited unhappiness potentially caused by ministerial recall, why is Neil following this high-risk strategy?
John Boyle, research director at Edinburgh consultancy Rettie & Co, suggests that by making a conspicuous example of a few big cases Neil hopes to frighten other local councils into making land available.
“In 2007 it was said Scotland needed to see 35,000 homes built each year – there was a consensus on that. Since then, we have averaged about 25,000 a year. Now we are down to 15,500 a year, so we are way off target,” he says.
“The planning system is restrictive and very political. In Edinburgh there is gridlock. The city has effectively had planning by appeal for years. The minister, with his recalls, is taking that on.”
Andrew McNab, associate director, planning, at Colliers International, is not so sure ministerial recall will work. “This is a great big guddle,” he says, using the Scots’ dialect word for fruitless confusion. “Nobody will come out of this feeling good.
“Until now, recalls have been few and far between. At Cammo, the minister is at odds with his own local party over this site, it is politically very sensitive in a marginal constituency. This is the hard top-down approach. Objectors and communities feel left out and powerless.”
McNab says the Cammo decision – when it comes – will be “interesting”. With the Scottish planning system more political than ever, and the Holyrood general election now just a year away, “interesting” hardly seems strong enough.
CAMMO AMMO
Cramond and Harthill Estates, landowners for the proposed 670-home development Cammo, floated the idea in 2013. They applied for planning permission in May 2014.
The site is included in Edinburgh’s proposed local development plan for residential development as HSG20.
Their planning agent, Halliday Fraser Munro, did not respond to EG’s request for an interview.
