The Scottish Government has refused to announce a date for its decision on the Pentland Studio planning application following a question in Parliament today.
Gordon Lindhurst, Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian region, asked the question of Minister Kevin Stewart following the Scottish Government announcement yesterday that the ‘purdah’ period for the local government elections in May would not prevent a decision being made. The ‘purdah’ rule normally prevents major policies and announcements being made during election campaign periods.
Lindhurst pressed the Government whether that clarification would be given following yesterday’s announcement, but the Minister refused to give a date.
Government Ministers have been sitting on the decision since it received the Reporters submission in December of last year.
Commenting after the answer wasn’t given, Gordon Lindhurst said:
“Everyone involved in this debacle is completely fed up with the Scottish Government dragging its heels on this issue.
What it amounts to once again is the SNP riding roughshod over local decision making. The time it is taking to actually make a decision on this shows that the Government should have left the decision in the hands of local people.
It appears that, with the local elections almost upon us, it isn’t ‘purdah’ preventing the Scottish Government from making a decision. Rather, it is running scared of the consequences of a decision for its local candidates in May.
This isn’t the action of a responsible Government capable of making decisions. The result is uncertainty for local people and centralisation of planning applications putting off potential investors.”