Peat Extraction Continues Despite Nationalist’s Agenda

Man of Action Posted on January 17, 2013 Posted in News

Pearson Planning, Chartered Surveyors has secured planning permission for the extraction of peat at a site in Dumfries & Galloway, for a further 40 Years. The deposit will sustain jobs and the supply of growing medium products to the UK food industry, professional horticulture, and amateur gardeners. Peat extraction has become a political football in recent years with Scottish Nationalists trying to win electoral support on a platform of ‘reduction & phasing out’ (Paul Wheelhouse). Of course, neither consumption nor importation & sale can be banned due to European Community rules.

Edinburgh, 12 November, and Ivan McKee MSP announced to the national assembly that work on introducing a Community Infrstructure Levy in Scotland is “stopped”. Ivan ‘the terrible’ McKee recognised that the Levy was not welcome. There is a general acceptance, too, that much needed house building is being stalled by disproportionate obligation demands, and as Ivan says “unpredictable, costly and lengthy” planning application processes. McKee, branded ‘the terrible’ because of His handling of public finances north of the Cheviots, offers only one solution: higher planning fees! Genius! Increasing (again) authority revenues is not the solution. The vast majority of applications are determined by individual Officers (many of which have no professional qualifications) without the right of appeal. This needs to stop. SNP Government spending for 2023-2024 had a negative fiscal balance of -£22 billion. This must stop.