Tag Archives: centralisation

2020 – The year government took planning away from the people 

By Andy Boddington | Sat 12th September 2020 - 12:00 pm

2020 will be remembered for many things. The pandemic and flooding among them. It will also be remembered as the year they took planning away from the people. 

The government’s proposals in the white paper Planning for the Future and associated documents are bold. They will transfer many local planning powers from councils and communities to Whitehall and the planning inspectorate in Bristol. Ministers want planning by checklist instead of considered, albeit sometimes difficult, planning deliberations that lead to quality developments. 

There are sensible ideas in the government’s proposals but they are countered by its determination to take democracy and localism out of planning. 

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Caron Lindsay

Danny Alexander speaks out against fire control room closures

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 25th September 2013 - 1:30 pm

If you’ve followed Scottish politics over the last few years, one theme will be very clear. The SNP Government will centralise anything that sits still for more than 5 minutes. Nowhere is this more true than in the centralisation of the Police and fire services.

When Scotland’s eight Police services were merged into one, we were assured that local policing autonomy would be protected. After all, you wouldn’t use the same tactics in Avoch as you would in Aberdeen or Glasgow.

Earlier this year we saw heavy handed raids on saunas in Edinburgh, which had previously been treated with a degree …

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