- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the dates and times of all contacts and communications between the Chief Planner’s office and Aberdeenshire Council between 29 November and 5 December 2007, broken down into those (a) specifically requested and (b) not specifically requested by ministers.
Answer
Planning Directorate officials keep in regular contact withAberdeenshire Council officials over a range of planning matters. A formalrecord of every telephone call is not kept. Planning officials were in contactwith Aberdeenshire Council on a number of occasions between those datesconcerning the planning application for the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire. Irefer the member to the answer to question S3W-7699 on 20 December 2007,which recorded the details of three such telephone calls. On 4 December 2007 planningofficials wrote to Aberdeenshire Council to advise of Scottish ministers’ decisionto call in that planning application. At no point did ministers request thatplanning officials contact Aberdeenshire Council.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the searchfacility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Chief Planner was asked by ministers to telephone Aberdeenshire Council concerning calling in the planning application for the Menie estate, rather than use any other form of communication.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the dates and times of all contacts and communications between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth’s office and the Trump Organization between 29 November and 5 December 2007.
Answer
No such contacts took place.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the dates and times of all contacts and communications between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth’s office and Aberdeenshire Council between 29 November and 5 December 2007.
Answer
No such contacts took place.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in order to involve local councillors in decisions about health services in their areas, it will consider extending their role and powers.
Answer
Senior local authority membersalready sit on health boards and participate fully in the role of the boardsand in the decisions that they make.
On 8 January I launched a consultationon proposals for a Local Healthcare Bill.The consultation is part of our drive to improve public and community involvementwith NHS boards and looks at how existing processes could be strengthened to enhancepublic involvement, and asks for views on introducing direct elections to healthboards. The role of local authority members is raised as part of the consultation.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive where the £26 million which has been reallocated in 2008-09 from waste services will be spent.
Answer
In 2007-08, the StrategicWaste Fund baseline was over £132 million. However, this level of resources willnot be spent on waste and so resources in 2007-08 have been allocated to other spendingpriorities and pressures. Resources for 2008-09 have also been allocated to meetother spending priorities and pressures. For 2008 onwards, we have allocated over£154 million over three years in our new zero waste fund. This fund will be usedto support work on the diversion of waste from landfill, including work on developingmarkets for recycled products, waste prevention, community recycling and waste educationand awareness.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what journeys were undertaken by the First Minister using the Government Car Service on 3 December 2007.
Answer
The First Ministerissued a statement on 11 December 2007, which noted that he wasat an official engagement in Inverurie on 3 December launching a major show forthe Scottish meat industry, using a government car. He then travelled to Aberdeenwith his special adviser to complete government business and to prepare for governmentbusiness in Aberdeen the next day. The First Minister made no other journeys onthis day in the government car.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Chief Planner was given the instruction by ministers to call in the planning application for the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire.
Answer
4 December 2007.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Chief Planner had a telephone conversation with Aberdeenshire Council on 4 December 2007 concerning the planning application for the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire and, if so, who was present in the room during this conversation.
Answer
The Chief Planner made three telephone calls to the Chief Executive of Aberdeenshire Council on the afternoon of 4 December. David Ferguson, Head of Planning Decisions was present during these conversations. The first of these calls was to request an update on the status of the council''s consideration of the application. The Chief Planner advised the Chief Executive that representatives from the Trump Organization were present in the room. At the request of the Chief Executive those representatives of the Trump Organization left the room for the duration of the call. The second call to the Chief Executive was to advise that the Chief Planner would be recommending to Scottish ministers that the planning application should be called in. The third call to the Chief Executive was to confirm that the planning application was to be called in by the Scottish ministers. The Chief Planner and the Head of Planning Decisions were the only people in the room during those telephone calls.
The following is the original answer (published on 20 December 2007); see below.
The Chief Planner made two telephone calls to the Chief Executive of Aberdeenshire Council on the afternoon of 4 December 2007. David Ferguson, Head of Planning Decisions was present during both conversations. The first of these calls was to request an update on the status of the council''s consideration of the application. The Chief Planner advised the Chief Executive that representatives from the Trump Organization were present in the room. At the request of the Chief Executive those representatives of the Trump Organization left the room for the duration of the call. The second call to the Chief Executive was to advise that the planning application was to be called in by the Scottish ministers. The Chief Planner and the Head of Planning Decisions were the only people in the room during that telephone call.
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date the First Minister declared his constituency interest in the planning proposals for the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire and what communications have been issued from the First Minister’s office to civil servants concerning these proposals since that date.
Answer
Mr Salmond’s constituency interestin this proposal commenced immediately following his election to the Gordon constituencyin May. We are giving immediate consideration to the publication of informationalongside requests made under Freedom of Information legislation. I will write toadvise when this has been made available.
