Comment posted Deadline: support the Oban transit marina proposal and tell the council why by Ken MacColl.
Looks like the Council site has collapsed. Now there’s a surprise!
As someone who lives in sight of the Bay and has travelled around it, approached it by road, rail, from the sea and from the air I heartily endorse the need for such an imaginative development.As the name indicates the town is there because of its unique situation.
I made my submission last week but I trust that any sustained delay in re-opening the website will result in an extension in the consultative period.
Recent comments by Ken MacColl
- The Stones, The Stars and Professor Thom
Genuinely sorry to miss this talk but Putechan Lodge is a long haul from Oban!
Professor Sandy Thom is the grandfather of my sister-in-law and was a genuine polymath-with wideranging interests and considerable expertise in engineering, mathematics, astronomy, sailing and almost any other field that attracted his interest.He was truly “a living example of the power of a flexible mind and a versatile disposition.”
During the war he worked on the aereodynamics of fighter aircraft.
Only after retiring from the Professorial Chair of Engineering Science at Oxford did he devote his undivided attention to one of his many other interests, the locatin and distribution of megalithic monuments across the west coast of Scotland and further afield.He worked closely with Marion Campbell in Mid Argyll. He is considered to be the father of archaeoastronomy.
If you are able, go to the talk and enjoy.
Then support the campaign to safeguard the Sighthill Stone Circle. - Disappointing stunting from Michael Russell
And, W.S., if you reveal your name, will we be entitled to make assumptions or presumptions about your ethnicity -as if it should matter? - Another question for Andrew Mitchell
Were it not for whistleblowers and serious investigative jounalists-for too few around at present-we would know far less about those entrusted with our government. - Campbell Cameron: Saying Yes
Pot, kettle , black….responding to Gus mackay is rarely a productive exercise but could I suggest that while the march was in support of Independence for Scotland, those who carried placards stating “YES” were in support of that cause.
My family had a long tradition of active support for the Labour party in Argyll and I recall how my father used to explain to me when I was a child the importance of countries like India and Ireland gaining control over their own destiny. Mind you he also spoke about the obscenity of nuclear weapons and the massive importance of the NHS and the principle that care should be free at the point of delivery.At that time the abolition of the House of Lords was a stated aim of the party.As a working class boy who got to university he would have been appalled at the notion of the Labour Party introducing student fees. I suspect that he would not have been singularly unimpressed with either Blair or Brown.
Devolution, even in times of financial stricture, has mostly worked well for Scotland and it has worked best in those areas where services, like Health and Education are in our Holyrood’s control and our own priorities are able to be addressed – contrast those with the chaos under Westminster control! The progression to independence is part of the process started in 1999 and perhaps the most significant factors of Saturday’s rally were the contributions from Dennis Canavan, Ruth Wishart and the growing Scottish Labour for Independence movement. - Campbell Cameron: Saying Yes
I am the bloke in the blue fleece and I am entitled to look older than Campbell Cameron for the simple reason that I am considerably older.Campbell is as hale and hearty as ever.
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Take great care what you wish for, as too many representations may well spell a public enquiry and resultant delays.
Perehaps the true reason for inviting public involvement after all these years.
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I for one don’t understand this comment.
I am not aware of any case where a preponderance of letters of support for a planning application has resulted in an untoward delay – though with this planning department nothing would surprise me.
I suspect however that this is nonsense. Anyone who thinks that Oban should reap some of the benefits from the yachting industry on its doorstep should take this opportunity to make a favourable comment on the proposal.
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Webcraft.
NO, not nonscense. Comparatively few negative responses WILL trigger a public enquiry and even positive ones can up the level of scrutiny.
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A strong application, as this is bound to be, need have no fear of scrutiny.
It may well be that a public enquiry is the best way for this proposal to get a fair hearing and a just outcome – and for the public to discover at last just what the blocking objections in the council amount to.
As for delays – Oban has been waiting for 30 years…
If there is widespread support for this initiative, the decision takers need to know that and need to know the range of perspectives publicly brought to bear upon it.
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Webcraft : I know of at least one incidence.
over 20 letters of support and only one in mild disapproval and it got shunted up the system.
That was a while ago. BUT !
Agree about supporting this proposal.
It cannot happen too soon to help our local economy across the spectrum. And to inspire new and further development in the same vein.
We need top quality high income trade.
We need to take Oban up several levels.
Looking after and making the most of our natural resources is our future.
The Sailing fraternity is just one who would love to bring us lots of income and jobs, in return for better access to our town and the wonderful waters and scenery around our shores.
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You’re absolutely right.
For Argyll really to work, we need all five big towns (and arguably Lochgilphead) to be hubs of business, shopping, leisure, visual charm and good eating at all price points, in their own right.
They are and have to be recognised as the engines of growth, including tourism.
The rural and coastal charms of Argyll are a major magnet but to holiday here, self catering or touring (the norm) folk need to know that there are towns within reach that can support, enchant and divert – to add variety to a holiday experience and to be a rewarding and welcoming sanctuary in bad weather.
This is one advantage of the decentralised Argyll – IF these towns were as good as they need to be, you’d never be that far from one of them.
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There have been a lot of comments made over the weekend – 100 public comments in fact. The names are lsited, but no-one has got round to putting the actual documents up – though strangely they have found time to post one from SNH.
I wonder if these letters of support – as I suspect they mostly are – will ever appear on the site.
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Looks like the Council site has collapsed. Now there’s a surprise!
As someone who lives in sight of the Bay and has travelled around it, approached it by road, rail, from the sea and from the air I heartily endorse the need for such an imaginative development.As the name indicates the town is there because of its unique situation.
I made my submission last week but I trust that any sustained delay in re-opening the website will result in an extension in the consultative period.
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Call me cynical, but I would not be surprised if all the comments were lost.
There are a lot of mysteries surrounding this application.
~ Why was it necessary to scrap all comments on the previous (virtually identical) application?
~ Why were previous commenters informed by letter rather than e-mail?
~ Why did it (in my case anyway) take two weeks from the time the letter was dated to it being delivered, so that it arrievd towards the end of the 28 day consultation period with only a few days left?
~ Is it coincidence that the server collapsed on a Monday morning when staff arrived to find an influx of positive comments on the application?
~ Why at midday Tuesday – the last day for consultation – is it still impossible to comment?
~ There were 117 public comments on this application last time I looked. Will they all be there when/if the site is restored?
~ In view of the server downtime will additional time for consultation be granted?
Given the Council’s previous history of chicanery and manipulation involving any proposals for a marina in Oban, I think this whole matter needs careful looking at.
Newsroom, are you up for it?
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