Dykes of Gray - A daft decision

(Jimmy Black is Depute Convener of the Development Management Committee. This is a very long blog ... please stick with it!)

£150 million pounds of investment, 100% local labour and 595 brand new houses. And we turned it down!
To explain, the City Council has been promoting the Western Gateway (behind the Hilton/Swallow Hotel at Dykes of Gray) for many years as a prime location for quality housebuilding. Developers have come and gone, and the credit crunch certainly didn't help.
Then at this week's Development Management Committe we had a proposal from Springfield Properties to invest a huge amount of money, and their confidence, in our city.
Grilled at the committee, they gave good answers to all the questions thrown at them, and it was clear that a considerable amount of preparatory work had been done by the developer and the Council's Planning Department. There were to be shops and a community hall, a village green, a playpark and a football pitch. Roads had already been improved (by the City Council) and the developer would sort out the circle at the Swallow to avoid congestion on the main road into Dundee.
There was capacity for children at Ardler Primary and Baldragon Academy. Baldragon will of course be in a brand new building before long, and Ardler Primary is right in the heart of a very successful and attractive community. There would be a school bus.
And what did we do? We turned down one half of the development. Then one councillor left and another arrived, that changed the voting, and we gave permission for the other half ... the bit without the shops, the hall and the village green.
It's hard to fathom why Bailie Borthwick proposed refusal of both parts of this development, and equally hard to fathom why so many councillors supported him. His reasoning seeemed to be that there was no school planned for the early stages of this development although this might be a possibility later. But building a school to sit empty while the development rolls out makes no sense at all when Dundee is full of schools with plenty of room.
Did some councillors feel that people would decline to buy houses at Dykes of Gray if this was in the Ardler/Baldragon catchment areas? Possibly, but I guess the developer had assessed that risk and still wanted to go ahead. For the record, I have every confidence in those two schools.
Was it the developer? Well Springfield is currently Scottish House Builder of the year for the second year running. They have won the Best Employer and Best Employee Homes for Scotland Awards. They have been Highly Commended in the Apprentice Employer of the Year Award. And in October this year they reported an unprecedented level of sales. So it wasn't the developer.
Springfield recently withdrew from a 200 home project in Rothiemurchus to concentrate on other opportunities in Scotland, one of which was presumably Dykes of Gray. They will be regretting that now. I can only hope they appeal this daftest of daft decisions, win, and build their attractive new village. But I wouldn't blame them if they took their investment elsewhere.

So how do we take decisions at Development Management? All 29 councillors sit on this committee. They must weigh up the evidence before them and take their decision on the night. These decisions are not made in secret by political groups (like many others). At Development Management, councillors must use their own brains.
So they get a carefully prepared and usually fairly long report from the Head of Planning which sets out the facts, the legislation and makes a recommendation.
The report is on paper in black and white, rendering many of the drawings difficult to read. Online versions are available but there are no facilities for councillors to use screens or computers at their desks. At one point during the Dykes of Gray debate the developer was reduced to holding up a small piece of paper and pointing at it to show the councillors where a football pitch was located.
We meet in the City Chambers. The acoustics are dreadful. At one point in the Dykes of Gray debate a councillor had to ask a deputation to speak up as he could not hear her. Anyone chatting to neighbours tends to blot out the speaker as indeed happened at that meeting.
Traditionally developers have been discouraged from"lobbying" councillors, although this is perfectly legal if done correctly. That means it is unusual for us to receive colour presentations which might make it easier for us to see what the developer wants to do. Equally, we seldom receive photographs or other material from deputations in advance of the meeting. Sometimes we get a copy of more detailed information from objectors placed in council lounges which we might notice and look at. We can of course go into the voluminous documents posted online as part of the planning applications. But will all 29 councillors ever have time to look at every one of these? I suspect not.
It's as though emails, pdf files and digital projectors had never been invented.
Members of the public, and developers, can ask to address the Committee for seven minutes to outline their support or opposition to planning applications. Councillors genuinely do listen to the arguments and sometimes change their minds at the meeting, often on the basis of what deputations tell them. That's a good thing, but in the absence of a really good understanding of what a development actually means, we can collectively make big mistakes. As we did over Dykes of Gray.
So what should happen? We should meet in a room where we can hear what's going on. We should  have access to computer terminals. There should be a big screen so that the public can see what's happening. That room is unlikely to be the City Chambers. Who cares? It's the decision which is important, not the venue.
We should positively invite developers and objectors to send us well presented material which will give us time to think about the decisions we are making. That would complement the thorough and professional reports which we receive from planning officers.
And we should consider reducing the size of the Committee to a smaller group of Councillors who would specialise in Development Management and have time to do the job properly. After all, the future shape of the city, millions of pounds of investment and thousands of construction jobs are at stake. It's all just too much of a lottery just now. Time to change.