Welcome to Lenzie South Green Belt
Contacts Made
Please use this page to notify every one of any contacts you have made and the responses that you have received. This will give us an overview of who are our supporters are (and are not) and what support we can expect.

LSGB Contacts
June
Numerous conversations with both Cllr Anne Jarvis and Cllr Rhondda Geekie
3rd E-mail to Jo Swinson
3rd E-Mail to Lenzie Community Council
3rd E-mail and conversation with Kirkintilloch Herald
6th E-mail to Fiona McLeod MSP
8th E-mail to Anne Jarvis and Lenzie Community Council
9th E-mail to Anne Jarvis
10th E-Mail to Lenzie Community Council
10th E-Mail to Fiona McLeod MSP
10th Email to Cllr Gillian Renwick
11th E-Mail to Anne Jarvis
12th E-Mail to Lenzie Community Council
14th Email from Fiona McLeods Office
16th Lenzie Community Council Meeting Lenzie Community Council held a special pre-meeting meeting allowing LSGB to take part and ask questions to a EDC planner, LSGB would like to thank Lenzie Community Council for this opportunity to get involved. Lenzie Community Council did agree that they would look at the potential of all Local Community Councils within East Dunbartonshire getting together to look at the overall position of EDC adopting the recommendations by the Reporter.
17th E-Mail from Cllr Anne Jarvis
20th Meeting arranged with Fiona McLeod MSP (Cancelled due to "I am sorry but Fiona will be unable to meet with you until next month as she has just been advised of emergency legislation that all MSP's must be in attendance as this is being introduced to Parliament."
20th Meeting arranged with Cllr Gillian Renwick in place of Fiona McLeod - The meeting with Gillian Renwick was very positive from LSGB point of view, Gillian has promised us that Fiona McLeod will speak directly with Keith Brown on our behalf and will then report back to us. Lets hope Fiona will be able to bring back some good news to her new constituency. We will, as always update when we have more information on this.
21st Meeting regarding TPO's
22nd E-Mail from Jo Swinson MP I know that you have concerns about the potential loss of Green Belt land near you, following the suggestion of the Scottish Government Reporter charged with studying the Council's Local Plan for the coming years. After a period of consultation on this, during which myself and a huge number of residents submitted strong representations against the plans, it has now been announced that the Reporter has decided that development should be allowed on the Green Belt sites in question, the two in Lenzie, one in Torrance and, partially, Jellyhill in Bishopbriggs.
The full report can be read on the Council's website:
The Council have said that they will now take some time to fully review and understand this report, and also take advice on the implications of it and the options now open to them. They have also stated that public meetings will be scheduled in due course.
This is extremely disappointing news for local residents concerned about the affected sites. Despite the Reporter receiving hundreds of well-argued objections from local residents and the Council making a robust case against the release of this greenbelt land, the community's views have not been listened to. The loss of Green Belt status throws open the protective green spaces around our communities, paving the way for new housing developments which will put real pressure on local services and roads, and threaten the unique character of our local towns and villages. As you are probably aware I recently organised a public meeting in Lenzie, which you may have made it along to, and residents were overwhelming against this decision by the Reporter.
I will continue to monitor this and press for the Council to do as much as they can to protect these precious Green Belt spaces that we all enjoy.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything I can assist with, as your MP.
Yours sincerely,
Jo Swinson MP
23rd E-Mail from Cllr Gillian Renwick - Just to let you know Fiona will try to ask a supplementary question today (its dependent on the Presiding Officer taking her) in response to Qu10: Gordon MacDonald on local involvement in planning. If taken she will ask: 'Can the Minister outline for my constituents in East Dunbartonshire the Ministerial role in a disputed Local Plan following recommendations from a Scottish Government Reporter?'
23rd E-Mail from Cllr Anne Jarvis
23rd E-Mail to Cllr Gillian Renwick ref Fiona McLeod MSP question (no reply yet)
July
Thanks for the email and your words in the council meeting this evening. I do realise that you and the other councillors did not want to adopt the changes forced onto the council by this undemocratic process. However I do think it is time for action and bearing in mind that time is now running out we have to move quickly.

I do realise that you may want to keep things within the council thus asking Aileen Campbell to meet with council representatives, but LSGB 1st priority is to stop the development in Lenzie and now that the council has agreed the motion to adopt the reporters (undemocratic) changes I do not see how a meeting with council representatives can make any difference to this issue. I do realise that it may be able to change things for a later date but for now I feel that any meetings to do with the 2 Lenzie sites should be conducted with LSGB and the local community.

As you did say that you are Fiona McLeod's constituency manager so I think it is now time to ask Fiona to step up and arrange a meeting for LSGB and the local community with the relevant ministers to put their points across and allow them to visit the sites for themselves, as you will see from the document from the council officers (the Local Plan 2 be adopted as the East Dunbartonshire Local Plan 2 unless directed not to do so by the Scottish Ministers) that it is the ministers who can only save these site now.

What LSGB are asking for as a minimum we feel is not unreasonable and in fact can be seen as a very sensible solution as no one has a crystal ball to know what the impacts will be on the local community of the 851 houses being built in Woodilee which as you know is less than 1km away from the 2 Lenzie sites. The 2 main points that LSGB want to put across are:-

1.        LSGB do not think it an unreasonable request that any further development within the Lenzie area is shelved until at the very least the 851 houses at Woodilee is completed and fully occupied to see what impact it has on the local and wider community.
2.        LSGB would also like that the 2 Lenzie sites are not considered until all land that has been released by EDC for housing has been fully utilised and that there are no more brownfield sites left before any further erosions of the green belt be allowed.

I think what the ministers have to realise is that the local people do not want this the council did not want it, but are being forced to accept it due to a very undemocratic process that has left a very bad taste in the mouths of local people, that there is no business case for it (unless you count the profit that the developer will pocket over and above what they are already pocketing less than 1km away from the 2 sites) that the decision makes no sense.

I look forward to a prompt and an agreeable response from you and the ministers.


Other Contacts
June
Dear Mr XXX
 
Thank you for your email, Mr McMillan passed your email to Fiona McLeod as she is now your Constituency MSP for Strathkelvin & Bearsden.
 
Fiona would be glad to attend your next meeting, unfortunately herself and Cllr Gillian Renwick were not notified in advance of the recent meeting arranged by Jo Swinson MP.
 
if you can let me know when the next public meeting is or if you would like to meet Fiona before then please let me know
 
Kindest Regards
 
Claire Renwick
 
Claire Renwick
Constituency Assistant to Fiona McLeod MSP
 
Representing Strathkelvin & Bearsden
Email: ClaireLouise.Renwick@scottish.parliament.uk

Following XXX questioning about the lack of affordable housing in Woodilee and Mrs Jarvis's comment that the council could not go back on this now, I mentioned this to Jo Swinson.  I have today a received a reply from her
If the council has indeed earmarked other areas for affordable housing, why is affordable housing being talked about in connection with this strip of greenbelt, and if it is not required for affordable housing then why has the reporter been given the impression that this is the case, as this permits her to waive the restriction on Greenbelt building.
"She does note that there is a shortage of affordable housing in East Dunbartonshire, and also observes that, within Scottish planning policy, this is a reason to over-rule usual restrictions for buildings on Green Belt land. However, the report also notes that the Council indicated in their evidence at the hearing that they feel the targets for affordable housing can be met within the areas already allocated for development."
In this case, if the council have other land for affordable housing, and this will not be required for such, then the Reporter should not have waived the restriction on Greenbelt building.
The very least that the Council can do in this case is to tell us where the other land for affordable housing is, and that will remove Miller's contention that they will be building affordable housing there.  I am sure that we could then go back to the Reporter and correct the misinformation she has received as it appears she has made her decision on flawed information.
However, I am still not convinced that the fringe of land around our development is not owned by the householders here, and that we could refuse to sell voluntarily the strip blocking the access to the site.  If the council had to acquire the strip of land at the culvert on Easter Garngaber then why would a builder not have to acquire the strip at the other end of the development.  I didn't keep the letter from the Council - about six years ago - but I'm going to try to acquire a copy.
If nothing else works then perhaps the time has come to find out how much the Irishman wants for the land and see if we can get Lottery Funding to buy it as an amenity for the wider community.


Dear XXX,

Apologies for not replying sooner but I have had technical problems with my email for the last week and a half.

The Local Plan as amended by the Scottish Reporters comes before East Dunbartonshire Council this Thursday night at our Full Council meeting. We have been told we have little option but to vote to approve the Local Plan without a valid legal reason - I am looking into what options I have as I DO NOT want to approve the Local PLan while it includes building on Lenzie greenbelt land.

As has been stated over and over - the local people and the local elected representatives do not want this greenbelt land built on - there appears to be nothing democratic in being told we must vote for this or run the risk of having no local plan and being at the mercy of every developer as they take advantage of the situation.

The appropriate Member of the Scottish Government to write to is Aileen Campbell, Minister for Local Government who will be required to approve the Local Plan once it goes through East Dunbartonshire Council.

Regards,

Gillian

Councillor Gillian Renwick BA PGDip
East Dunbartonshire Council
Tom Johnston House, Civic Way
Kirkintilloch, GLASGOW, G66 4TJ
Tel:  0141 578 8038 Fax:  0141 578 8482