8th March 2023

A relative newcomer to the small band of NGOs in Scotland that campaign on environmental issues is the Environment Rights Centre for Scotland.  Working with fellow travellers, Planning Democracy, Friends of the Earth Scotland and RSPB,  ERCS believe that both the UK and Scottish Governments are in contravention of human rights legislation because of their refusal to allow communities a right to challenge planning decisions. The case is now being investigated by the United Nations body tasked with upholding environmental law. Given the development industry’s longstanding and fierce opposition to Equal Rights of Appeal, this is the stuff of David and Goliath

Any straw poll of policy makers on the big issues facing island communities would likely place depopulation near the top. But as with any analysis of population trends, it can often fail to capture the full story.  Local community development agency – CoDeL – in part set up to seek out those micro trends that the bigger sweeps of data tend to miss – have concluded that the doom-mongers are ignoring what’s been happening with a younger segment of the population – at least on Uist. This recent blog explains why and flags up the launch of a related new web-based initiative.

A recent planning concept that seems to have caught the attention of planners and communities alike is the 20 minute neighbourhood or variations on that theme – 15 minute cities etc. Although somewhat problematic when trying to tie down the practicalities of what a 20 minute neighbourhood should look like, the principle of being able to walk or cycle rather than drive seemed broadly attractive. That is until a more sinister interpretation of the idea began to surface. Was this just a Stalinist plot to control the movements of local residents? A 2000 strong demonstration in Oxford clearly thought so.