Fuel Poverty

 At a the recent meeting of North Ayrshire councils Executive councillor John Bell raised the issue of the need to improve insulation in the councils timber housing stock. The meeting discussed the Council’s support for reducing fuel poverty, maximising fuel efficiency in its housing stock and supporting efficient energy use in housing generally.

Executive members heard of actions taken to improve the energy efficiency, including the installation of energy efficient boilers and improvements to the fabric of existing dwellings. The Head of Community Care and Housing undertook to submit a report to a future meeting of the Executive on the outcome of work to examine options for improving the energy efficiency of the Council's timber housing stock. Councillor Bell said “The councils Timber houses are notoriously poorly insulated and we need to examine options for tenants in these particular houses. While currently over 90% of the Council's housing stock attains the minimum standard we need to achieve this on the remaining stock.

Olga Clayton, NAC’s Head of Community Care and Housing undertook to submit a report to a future meeting of the Executive on the outcome of work to examine options for improving the energy efficiency of the Council's timber housing stock.

Lochshore

At a recent meeting of the North Ayrshire Local Development Plan committee a decision was taken to remove the housing allocation from the North Lochshore area. I was unable to attend the meeting through illness but the minutes seem to suggest that the members involved were persuaded that this site is less viable than others in the area. Most local people would point out that none of the allocated sites are viable in the current market. 
The Lochshore site is more than just a housing site however, and if this change makes it through to the finalised plan it would have major repercussions for the local community.
 In this blog in December 2006 I wrote "Big news this month for the area with the council signing up to the framework agreement with SEA on the regeneration of the steelwork site at Lochshore. Part of the agreement is that income generated from the project will be held in a Kilbirnie and Glengarnock improvement fund, which will use this to improve the town centre and link in with the conservation area."

I have been successful in persuading the Labour Executive to allocate council funding to Town centre Improvements in Kilbirnie and Beith, but locally the main chance for continuing long term regeneration lay in the Lochshore project , where profits from an area of housing would fund the remediation of some contaminated land, improve the business park at Glengarnock  with a proportion of the profits from the scheme allocated to a Kilbirnie and Glengarnock Regeneration Fund. The Lochshore Project was stalled for two years in 2007 with the incoming SNP Governments preoccupation with splitting Scottish Enterprise, and the subsequent credit crunch which again delayed the project.

At the council meeting yesterday 4/4/12 I questioned the decision and asked for more detail on the questions asked before members decide on this move. The Local Plan process will continue with the publication of an amended plan and further consultation will take place. The local community need to be ready to respond.

Planning decisions should be made in the interests of the whole community not just landowners and property speculators.