The planning reform has been a long time coming and the aim is to untangle the webs of red tape that have tied up planning applications for months and which will have frustrated many of you with the inevitable delays. In fact most of the complaints I have had from constituents during my two years as a councillor have concerned planning matters.
Now we are going to have e-planning - which is what it says on the tin. Planning procedures will be completed and followed through online and the new mantra is that planning departments are to be helpful and transparent. About time too I hear you say.
That`s the good news.
What might not be so welcome is the new procedure which allows minor developments (in planning terms) - including large extensions to homes and dormer windows - to go ahead without planning permission. Good news if you are planning an exension, not so good if you are the next door neighbour. Even planning officials are admitting surprise at the size of exensions that will be permitted and I foresee trouble ahead. And before you aim criticism at SAC, this is nationwide on the instruction of Holyrood, not a local whim.
Last week council planning officers were holding seminars for Community Councillors to bring them up to speed with the changes which come in on August 3 and I joined the group at Maybole Town Hall, representatives of North and South Carrick. And while I was expecting a lot of debate on how the moves would affect the villages, a lot of the discussion centred on the state of Ayr town centre which both surprised and delighted me.
Being Ayr born and bred I despair at the state of the proud old County Town, suffering from years of neglect. A walk down the once proud High Street is a depressing experience; each week seems to see more For Sale boards going up, litter lying, chewing gum imbedded in the pavements, trees growing out of the masonry.
A couple of weekends ago I was in St Germain-en-Laye, Ayr`s twin town on the outskirts of Paris. (And before anybody asks in this time of scrutiny of politicians` expenses, it was a private visit with friends I met 25 years ago when the twinning link was first formed.) The two towns are comparable in size and both are comparitively weathly even in these difficult times.( Figures in a newspaper last year estimated there were over 100 millionaires living in or around Ayr! But there the similarity ends. The old buildings in the French town are beautifully preserved; the town centre is full of small shops, butchers, bakers, cheese shops, clothes and shoe shops- and they were buzzing. I didn`t see one boarded up shopfront. Flower beds were being replanted, the streets were litter free.
But what depressed me most was hearing my French friends, members of their Town Twinning Association, saying how they were looking forward to visitng Ayr next month and what a nice town it was. When. I silently asked myself, did you last visit? My temptation is to ask their hosts to steer them clear of the centre.
And I know, the same can be said of Maybole, Girvan - Troon and Prestwick seem to have escaped the worst of the neglect.
However on a brighter note the Ayr Renaissance Board is now up and running and applications are going in for regeneration funding. The chairman, Ayr businessman Alan McDonald is positive that change for the better is coming, hopefully sooner rather than later. And where Ayr leads the rest may follow.