Details of representations made to the Scottish Executive concerning the building on open space as part of Public Private Partnership (PPP) education projects
The following information gives details of relevant representations held by the policy branch of the Scottish Executive's Planning Division.
Parliamentary Questions
Table 1 details the relevant parliamentary questions, both written and oral, from the last five years.
PQ No. | Asked By | Text of PQ | Date Answered |
S2W-08300 | Donald Gorrie MSP | To ask the Scottish Executive in what circumstances, and under what conditions, it will grant permission to local authorities to include public spaces and parks as part of any proposed PPP initiative for new school campuses. | 31 May 2004 |
S2O-03481 | Margaret Smith MSP | To ask the Scottish Executive what safeguards are in place to prevent loss of playing fields as a result of school rebuilding schemes carried out under public private partnerships. | 30 September 2004 |
S2O-6917 | Adam Ingram MSP | To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluation it has made of the impact of public-private partnership financing on community resources such as green space | 3 June 2005 |
The answers for S2W-08300 and S2O-03481 can be found in the Written Answer database provided on the Scottish Parliament website:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/index.htm
The Oral PQ S2O-6917 was taken in the chamber, and the answer given and discussion that followed can be found in the Official Report database provided on the Scottish Parliament website:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/index.htm
Public Petitions
Table 2 details the relevant public petitions from the past five years. Table 3 gives information on the representations made to the Scottish Executive by the Public Petitions Committee, following their discussions of said petitions:
Petition No. | Raised by and in relation to: | Text of Petition: | Date lodged: |
PE 771 | Olena Stewart, in relation to proposal by South Ayrshire Council to build a primary school campus on the Old Racecourse at Ayr. | "calling for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to consider whether there is sufficient guidance for local authorities to safeguard the provision of playingfields and recreation open space and to establish whether additional legislation is required to cover conflicts of interest within local authorities on planning matters in relation to the loss of playing fields." | 21 September 2004 |
PE 813 | Ronnie MacNicol, on behalf of Laighdykes Residents Group and in relation to North Ayrshire Council's proposal to build a secondary school campus on playing field land at Laighdykes, Jacks Road in Saltcoats Ayrshire. | "calling for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to review existing planning procedures and guidance to ensure that they are sufficient to prevent local authorities from using playing field land for development purposes." | 03 February 2005 |
Table 3 - Representations made to the Executive in relation to Public Petitions
Petition No. | Details of Representation | Date of Representation |
PE 771 | The Committee sought comments on the issues raised in the petition and in particular whether the Executive is satisfied that the current planning guidelines are sufficient in protecting the provision of playing fields and open space. | November 2004 |
PE 771, PE 813 | The Committee sought the Executive's views on possible conflicts of interest whereby local authorities and own land for a proposed development and are also the relevant planning authority. They also sought the Executive's views on a response the Committee had received from Sportscotland raising their concerns on the "pressure that school playing fields are now under, and finally they were looking for an update on timescales for the Executive review of National Planning Policy Guidance 11: Sport, Physical Recreation and Open Space. | 03 March 2005 |
PE 771, PE 813 (& PE 821) | The Committee simply noted that PE 821 (which relates to housing development on green space, and not education projects) had been linked with the other two petitions and sought the Executive's views on the issues raised by this new petition. They also re-iterated their requests of the 03 March 2005 letter. | 10 March 2005 |
All of these petitions remain open (and are being handled together, along with PE 821, by the Public Petitions Committee) and as such their progress can be monitored on the Scottish Parliament database for open petitions:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/petitions/open/index.htm
Parliamentary Motions
Table 4 details parliamentary motions which the Executive's Planning Division has taken an interest in and which, during the Members Debate of the motion, issues of PPP education projects concerning green space development were raised.
Motion No. | Motion Raised by: | Text of Motion: | Date Debate held in Parliament: |
S2M -1172 | Robert Brown MSP | That the Parliament notes with concern the continuing loss of green space in Glasgow and other areas due to planning encroachment and, in particular, the threat to the future of bowling greens, tennis courts, football fields, allotments and similar facilities and believes that the Scottish Executive and local authorities should review land use policies, strengthen the protection of green space and leisure facilities, enforce local planning policies, conservation and other planning protections stringently and halt the development for other purposes of green space and leisure areas in pressurised urban communities. | 21 April 2004 |
S2M-2615 | Mike Watson MSP | That the Parliament notes with concern the continuing diminution in the number of sports pitches and open space across Scotland, despite the efforts of sportscotland and the National Playing Fields Association Scotland; believes that this will make it more difficult for the Scottish Executive to achieve its stated aim of improving the health of young people in Scotland and reducing levels of obesity; endorses the need, as expressed in the report of the Physical Activity Task Force, for all primary and secondary pupils to have a minimum of two hours each week of quality physical education, and considers that the Executive should ensure that more robust measures are introduced to the planning process to protect land used for organised sport and other forms of physical activity. | 1 June 2005 |
The Official Report of the Scottish Parliament provides a transcript of all meetings of the Parliament and, as such, can provide full transcripts of the debates detailed above (see earlier link).
Ministerial Correspondence
Table 5 below provides details of relevant representations made directly to Ministers and which were dealt with by the Executive's Planning Division as Ministerial Correspondence (MCS) Cases:
MCS Case No. | Correspondence Received from: | Details of Correspondence: | Date: |
2005/0003263 | Member of the Public | To: Jack McConnell, First Minister. Looking for the First Minister to influence the stopping of a decision by Stirling Council to build a replacement for St Modans High School on open land between Balquiderock Wood and Bannockburn High School. | 29 January 2005 |
2005/0014721 | Campbell Martin MSP | To: Johann Lamont, Deputy Minister for Communities. Looking to establish if Scottish Ministers were minded to create a presumption against development on playing fields in planning law. Mr Martin believed this should be done by preventing development on playing field land where the National Playing Fields Association minimum standard of open space per head of population was not met. Explained his interest as arising from the North Ayrshire Council proposal to build a school on Laighdykes playing fields | 30 April 2005 |
Other Representations
One other representation is on file but does not fall into any of the categories above. This representation came in the form of a letter of 14 January 1999 to the (then) Scottish Office Development Department from Glasgow City Council. The Council were querying a request by the department to consult with their own Leisure and Cultural Services Department on plans for an extension to East Bank Academy, 24 Academy Street, Glasgow. The extension required building on an existing playing field and so may be a representation of interest.
Representations received by other Departments
The Scottish Executive Education Department has received representations as follows concerning the possible construction of schools on greenspace as part of school PPP projects:
· 9 letters in 2004 about South Ayrshire Council's proposal to build a replacement for Ayr Grammar Primary School on part of the site of the Old Racecourse, Ayr.
· 5 letters in 2005 about Stirling Council's proposal to relocate Wallace High School, Stirling
· 5 letters in 2005 about Stirling Council's proposal to relocate St Modan's High School, Stirling
· 3 letters in 2004 about Stirling Council's proposal to relocate Stirling High School, Stirling
· 3 letters in 2005 about Highland Council's proposal to relocate Dingwall Academy, Dingwall
· 1 letter in 2005 about Falkirk Council's proposal to relocate Denny High School, Denny
The sportscotland report: "Annual Monitoring Report 2005: Planning Applications Affecting Playing Fields" might also be of interest. This report provides information on 2004/05 planning applications affecting playing field land and in which sportscotland have been involved. The paper also gives an overview of the situation since sportscotland became a statutory consultee in 1996, and includes discussion on the impact of PPP proposals on school pitches. Hard copies of this report are available and can be obtained by contacting Jim Hislop, of the Sports Division of the Scottish Executive, on 0131 244 0338.