CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

"Pressure on green belt as 10,000 homes to be built"

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  1. Ed1
    Member

    They sound like sensible ideas.

    I had thought it was this legislation
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/106

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. neddie
    Member

    Perhaps instead, businesses should be forced encouraged to locate close to existing affordable housing and draw their workforce from there, instead of everyone trying to cram in to the city?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. Morningsider
    Member

    Ed1 - almost, that's the English equivalent. In Scotland it was Section 50 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 - now Section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I don't think anyone should be allowed to own land at all. Long-term custodianship why not, but ownership? How could ownership of the surface of the planet legally arise?

    Clearly all land was occupied by force initially. Nobody has ever created land by hard work, though they may have improved it and be due the value of their improvement.

    There are large tracts of Scotland that have already been expropriated by the state and sold to the highest bidder under the Act anent Estates of Traitors of 1746 and its 1716 equivalent.

    My solution: expropriate all land (but not the buildings on it). Decide democratically to whom the land should be allocated to best suit society. Charge Land Value Tax to the occupants.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. wingpig
    Member

    "Nobody has ever created land by hard work"

    Flevoland would disagree, but we know what you mean.
    Ever read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy? He likes stewardships of lands and decumulation of private wealth.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. stiltskin
    Member

    How can you own bits of metal/carbon fibre/rubber? They are all just parts of planet Earth.
    Who has the right to expropriate something that nobody can apprently own? Where does the ' democratic right' to do all this come from anyway?
    Glad to see spending the best part of three years studying the History of Political Theory hasn't been wasted....

    Posted 5 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I'm pretty sure that the right to occupy, act on and exclude others from land can usefully be seen as a different category from the right to hold objects derived from land. Also my body and the objects I own are in different categories. I propose a hierarchy;

    1) Our bodies - no one may take or use them.
    2) Objects, including objects on land such as houses - we may hold them if others agree.
    3) Land - should not be owned but allocated for the common good.

    When slavery was abolished in the UK of GB&I slave owners were compensated but not the slaves.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. neddie
    Member

    If you don’t own the land, where is the incentive to improve it?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. minus six
    Member

    When slavery was abolished in the UK of GB&I slave owners were compensated

    compensated from the tax of the working class, no less

    i boycott certain streets of glesga to this day

    and it goes without saying that

    the entire new town of edinburgh is verboten

    Posted 5 years ago #
  10. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    If you don’t own the land, where is the incentive to improve it?

    Excellent question as ever. I don't own Edinburgh yet but I do want to improve it by, for instance, paying my share of a cycle network.

    The Drumochter Pass, a contender for the bleakest corner of all Caledon, is owned by a shell company in Panama. They seem not have any motive to improve it.

    Surely we're all motivated to improve the places where we pass our all too brief span regardless of ownership?

    Not sure ownership and motivation to improve are connected as simply as first sight suggests?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. chdot
    Admin

    “Not sure ownership and motivation to improve are connected as simply as first sight suggests?”

    Irrespective of ownership the perperetual problem of “improve” will remain - not least in the context of this thread.

    There is a default assumption that building on Green Belt (or at least the agricultural bits) is undesirable/bad and that developers only do it to make profits - often expecting levels of return that can be described as excessive.

    It is clear that there is a need for places for people to live and this thread has covered the changes in household sizes (and thereby need for more units beyond the rise in population - more divorce and single person households etc).

    ‘We’ are particularly concerned about a planning system that encourages (and/or is unable to discourage) developments that will lead to even more car use due to lack of adequate provision of alternative transport options - with even less prospect of actual restrictions on the choice to travel alone in a car.

    All the futurist talk of autonomous vehicles meaning fewer people actually owning vehicles might have some marginal effect on the need for parking spaces, but clearly not intended to reduce traffic. ‘It’ll be fine because future vehicle will be electric so no air pollution and no more close passes...’

    More needs to be done on the many questions surrounding ownership of land and particularly how to tax its use and non-use.

    But don’t forget there are people and government departments and LAs who want to see more land covered in more/bigger roads, more dwelling units unrelated to employment opportunities, ‘out of town’ shopping and film studios etc.

    Of course when IWRATS IS in charge things will be done PROPERLY.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    when IWRATS IS in charge things will be done PROPERLY

    Anybody know any good tattooists?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @IWRATS, actually, yes.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  14. neddie
    Member

    That's the thing about owning stuff, it's, well, "ownership".

    When you take "ownership" of something, it means two things:

    1. You legally own it.
    2. You take responsibility for it.

    Example: For a tenant in a property they do not own, they might "improve" the property by adding some throws to the sofa, some plants in the living room, or by adding some of their own pictures. However, there is no incentive to maintain the property structurally aside from if it gets really bad and starts leaking water/wind, etc.

    But as we all know, it's much cheaper and more efficient to fix things before they get bad - "a stitch in time"

    My feeling is, if no one owns anything, everything will turn to a state of gradual decay. Isn't this what happened in communist countries?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  15. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Arellcat

    Ah, who do you go to?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  16. crowriver
    Member

    "My feeling is, if no one owns anything, everything will turn to a state of gradual decay. Isn't this what happened in communist countries?"

    Not really. In the former communist/socialist countries officially "the people" owned everything. In practice this meant the state (as the guarantor of the people's interests) owned everything. Much of the decay you refer to (though not all) happened after the fall of communism/socialism, during the so-called "wild capitalism" phase of transition from communism/socialism (to what...?).

    Plenty of gradual decay to be found in the UK, which has always been capitalist, even during the post-WW2 "mixed economy" experiment of widespread nationalised industries, mass social housing built by government, etc. Go and have a wonder round south of the Clyde in Glasgow for example and see the crumbling buildings. The epitome of rapid decay would be somewhere like Detroit, which is located in a very capitalist country.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  17. chdot
    Admin

    Before the advent of the automobile, Detroit was a small, compact, regional manufacturing center. In 1900, Detroit had a population of 285,000 people, making it the thirteenth largest city in the U.S.[6] Over the following decades, the growth of the automobile industry, including affiliated activities such as parts manufacturing, came to dwarf all other manufacturing in the city. The industry drew a million new residents to the city. At Ford Motor's iconic and enormous River Rouge plant alone, opened in 1927 in Dearborn, there were over 90,000 workers.[6]

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_Detroit

    Posted 5 years ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

  19. HankChief
    Member

  20. redmist
    Member

    I can't work out where in Winchburgh this is. I assume this "marina" will be similar to what is on the canal at Ratho. "35 acres of employment land" - what on earth does that mean ?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  21. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    "Winchburgh Developments Ltd confirmed that they would construct the rail station in time for the commencement of rail services in December 2018."

    "The delivery of a rail station at Winchburgh has been agreed by all parties involved. Rail services will commence in December 2018 subject to all necessary construction and timetabling works being completed on schedule."

    http://www.winchburghcc.org.uk/media/other/33711/WinchburghRailStation.pdf

    How's all that going? I think I can guess...

    Posted 5 years ago #
  22. Frenchy
    Member

    @redmist - I'm guessing it's roughly here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/55.9679/-3.4828

    Bounded by the canal to the north and the footpath (marked red on the map) to the east. There's a separate planning application (1123/FUL/18) in for turning the landfill site into a public park.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  23. redmist
    Member

    Thanks Frenchy. I occasionally cycle down that footpath so I know where you are.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  24. crowriver
    Member

    @Murun Buchstansang, I think the answer to that question is revealed in the very same report you linked to. "Transport Scotland have stated they would not grant permission for a station if it would negatively impact upon the stated journey time aims of EGIP"

    Posted 5 years ago #
  25. chdot
    Admin

  26. crowriver
    Member

    Winchburgh village to be developed into town in West Lothian

    No mention of a train station...

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46906369

    Posted 5 years ago #
  27. chdot
    Admin

    What’s needed is a station with four tracks, (two for non-stop), careful timetabling AND reliability so that fast trains can pass while others are at platform.

    Rail line just off top of artist’s impression.

    Obviously some trains would need to wait several minutes to allow ‘expresses’ to pass - and no doubt that would be ‘unacceptable’ to railway operators and impatient passengers.

    Normal in parts of Scotland’s that are singletracked.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

    OR put the station on the Dalmeny line and attract new residents who would travel to Fife and Glasgow more than Edinburgh!

    Posted 5 years ago #
  29. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    "35 acres of employment land" - what on earth does that mean ?

    A small turnip farm.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  30. Ed1
    Member

    I notice long Dalamhoy and Warriston farm road are much busier than they used to be there was a 6 car long traffic jam on Warriston road the other day. It appears more people are coming down from Balerno on Ravelrig road. Gala homes build an estate of at the edge of Balerno last year.

    It appears Ravelrig road is being used as short cut for the the new Gala monstrosities causing the junction to turn amber on google maps.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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