Chamber and committees

The A709 is a local road,and is the responsibility of Dumfries and Galloway Council. The Scottish Executive has notundertaken any estimates of the cost of dualling the route.

The A709 is a local roadwhich is the responsibility of Dumfries and Galloway Council. The Executive has no current plansto trunk the A709 or fund dualling of the route.

The question of whether itmay be appropriate to trunk or de-trunk routes in relation to a possible futureimprovement scheme would be considered in relation to the nature of that schemeand the route involved. The Executive has no plans to trunk the A709 or funddualling of the route.

The Scottish Executive has not issued guidance on this particular aspect of neighbournotification. However, where a planning authority deems that an alteration tothe approved proposals represents a material change, then they should requestthe submission of a new planning application. This will require the applicantto carry out the necessary neighbour notification procedures for the newapplication.

Planning Advice Note 40:Development Control provides guidance to local authorities where the substanceof an application is to be changed. Where such changes are proposed, a newapplication should be submitted to the planning authority and neighbour notificationundertaken.

This document can be viewedat www.scotland.gov.uk/planning.

The Executive keeps NationalPlanning Policy Guidelines (NPPGs) under review and revises them asappropriate. The response to the Review of Strategic Planning (published inJune 2002), indicated our intention to rename National Planning PolicyGuidelines as Scottish Planning Policies and to make them more concise and thepolicy content more explicit. The response also included an indicativeprogramme for the review and updating of NPPGs and publication as ScottishPlanning Policies (SPPs). This indicative programme is reproduced below.Publication dates indicate when each NPPG or SPP was last reviewed. Informationis also given on current progress on the review and updating of particularNPPGs.

Indicative Programme ForReview Of Nppg Series

2002:

The Planning System – SPP 1 (published November 2000)

Economic Development –SPP 2 (published November 2002)

Planning for Housing – SPP 3 (published November 2003)

West Edinburgh Planning Framework (published March 2003 – to be updated in the light of therecommendations in The Future of Air Transport published in December2003)

2003:

Flooding – SPP 7 (to be published shortly)

Opencast Coal  - SPP 16 (published March 1999 - to be updated inthe light of recent research to be published in February 2004)

2004:

Mineral Working – SPP 4 (published April 1994 - review commenced)

Town Centres andRetailing – SPP 8 (published inOctober 1998 - to be reviewed in the light of recent research published inJanuary 2004)

Transport – SPP 17incorporating The Provision of Roadside Facilities on Motorways andOther Trunk Roads (published in March 1996 and April 1999 - Draft SPPpublished January 2004 )

Rural Development – SPP 15 (draft SPP to be published shortly)

2005:

Built Heritage – SPP 5 replacing Archaeology (NPPG 5) and HistoricEnvironment (NPPG 18) – published in January 1994 and April 1999

Sport, Open Space andRecreation – SPP 11 – published in June1996

Green Belts – (Circular 24/1985 published in 1985)

2006:

Renewable EnergyDevelopments –SPP 6 (published in November2000)

Planning and WasteTreatment – SPP 10 (published in March1996)

Radio Telecommunications – SPP 19 (published in July 2001)

Natural Heritage – SPP 14 (published in January 1999)

Coastal Planning –SPP 13 (published in August 1997)

The Executive has consideredthe recommendations contained in the panels’ report on affordability. The Executiveis committed to securing substantial efficiency savings at Scottish Water asthe principal means of easing pressure on water and sewerage charges for allcustomers, including those in low income and vulnerable households. Inaddition, particular assistance to low income households is provided throughthe link between water charges and the council tax banding and discountarrangements. In terms of the specific recommendations in the report:

TheExecutive is assessing the impact that ending the current Water and SewerageCharges Reduction Scheme will have in light of harmonisation of charges. Adecision on whether any further action is required will be made in light ofthis assessment.

Incomesupport is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

Local authorities are currently responsible forcollecting charges for domestic customers. This is an efficient and customer friendlyway of charging. It enables customers to pay for two services with one bill; and itavoids them having to meet, through higher water bills, the costs thatotherwise would arise from having to establish and maintain a separate billingsystem for water and sewerage services.

Thepractice of local authorities collecting water and sewerage charges is also thebasis of the crucial link between charges and the council tax banding anddiscount arrangements. Giving Scottish Water responsibility to collect chargeswould not only result in increased bills for customers, it would undermine thesearrangements to the detriment of low income and vulnerable households.

The Executive has no plansof directing Scottish Water to pursue a policy of household metering.

Salaried dentist posts werefirst introduced in the late 1960s and advertising and filling of vacancies isa matter for the relevant NHS boards/Primary Care NHS Trusts. The informationrequested is not held centrally.

We have not set any waitingtimes targets specifically for cataract operations and have no plans to do so.Cataract operations are covered by our national maximum waiting time guaranteefor hospital in-patient and day case treatment, which was reduced from 12months to nine months from 31 December 2003. This guarantee will be further reduced to sixmonths from 31 December 2005.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows:

Schedule 7 to the Housing (Scotland)Act 2001 prohibits any registered social landlord (RSL) from granting benefits.Specifically, a benefit cannot be granted to a business trading for profitwhere either the principal proprietor of that business or a person directlyconcerned in the management of that business (a) is, or has been during thepreceding 12 months, an officer or employee of the RSL or (b) is a closerelative of any such person.

For these purposes, theaward of a contract would be treated as the grant of a benefit.

The Scottish ministers havein effect approved certain exceptions to those restrictions. These include, forexample, where the choice of contractors is severely limited in a very remoterural community.

RSLs may, in veryexceptional circumstances, make a payment or grant a benefit to a relevantbusiness in which a close relative of an employee is a principal proprietor oris directly concerned in the management of a business with which the RSL has acommercial relationship. This would only apply where no alternative, reasonableoption exists for procuring the product or service.

Even in those cases the RSLsgoverning body must approve any exception used and be able to demonstrate thatthe employee concerned is not involved in any aspect of the contractprocurement or management of the contract. This does not mean that an employeewould have to leave their employment; however the RSL may have to bring theirrelationship with the contractor to an end.