Agendas, reports and minutes

Resumption of the Highland Council held on Thursday 19 September 2024 

A resumption of the above meeting of the Highland Council will be held in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Monday 30 September 2024 at 2.00pm. 

Please note that this will be a continuation of the meeting that was adjourned on 19 September 2024 to conclude the remaining items from the agenda and to consider an additional Urgent Item. In this regard, an updated agenda has been provided. 

Yours faithfully 

Stewart Fraser 
Chief Officer – Legal and Corporate Governance

Business

1.Calling of the Roll and Apologies for Absence
Gairm a’ Chlàir agus Leisgeulan

2. Declarations of Interest/Transparency Statement
Foillseachaidhean Com-pàirt/Aithris Fhollaiseachd

Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting.  Any Member making a declaration of interest should provide some information on the nature of the interest and leave the meeting at the appropriate time.  Advice may be sought from officers prior to the meeting taking place.

URGENT ITEM

Membership of the Council
Ballrachd na Comhairle

The Council is advised that, following By-Elections for Wards 6 and 14 held on 26 September 2024, the undernoted were elected as Members of the Council:

Ward 6: Mr S Coghill and Mr J Edmondson
Ward 14: Dr M Gregson

22. Notices of Motion
Brathan Gluasaid

Please note, that in accordance with Standing Order 12, there remains 1 hour 45 minutes of the 2.5 hours time allocation for consideration of Motions.

The following Notices of Motion have been received by the Head of Legal and Governance – 

(3) MAJOR ELECTRICITY DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

This Council:

NOTES there are a number of major proposed electricity generation, storage and transmission developments, which have been or are likely to be presented to The Highland Council for planning permission, or for a response as a Consultee, in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGES that, without prejudice to future determinations, such major infrastructure developments are very likely to have significant scheme specific and cumulative environmental and socio-economic impacts upon communities and landscapes within the Highlands. 

RECOGNISES it is desirable that communities across Highland are fully engaged in the consultation and planning process and are suitably empowered to respond on an equal basis given the resources deployed by the developers, SSEN and statutory consultees. 

NOTES that currently these major development applications are not considered in a Highland wide context, rather they are lodged individually in a piecemeal, fragmented fashion and therefore considered individually, without reference to the effects from the entirety of developments across Highland being considered and therefore with a lack of understanding as to what the totality will mean for our communities and our environment. 

THEREFORE, this Council AGREES:

(1) REAL TIME MAPPING - To produce a real time map, publicly available online, showing all the major renewable energy related developments within Council’s knowledge, existing and proposed, including those which are or will come to Council for planning and or the Energy Consents Unit, be they operational, permitted developments or otherwise. In so far as legally permissible, the map will also include an indication of anonymised approaches made to Highland Council for pre-planning advice. This map will therefore present a holistic overview of the applications that are currently in the pipeline, including but not limited to, all proposed electricity generation, storage and transmission developments, grid connection, energy generation stations, BESS, and wind farms.

S95 Officer Financial Assessment: regarding proposal (1) above, there are anticipated to be financial implications associated with the establishment of a real-time mapping tool, as well as ongoing staffing/support/maintenance of the tool.  Further detailed investigation would be required to establish what potential solutions would need to be acquired or developed, and the costs or range of costs which may arise.  

(2) THE APPROACH TO APPLICATIONS
 
(i)  The Leader will continue dialogue with the Scottish Government to ensure that the full cumulative aspect of developments, including the potential grid connection, is considered within the submission of an application under S36 of the Electricity Act for an energy generation station, and for all BESS applications of whatever scale, and the Leader to report regularly to Group Leaders regarding progress, and  

(ii) If an increase in the MW threshold for applications under S36 of the Electricity Act is implemented so that some additional generating stations would fall within the Town and Country Planning Acts, the Council will update its Planning Guidance for such developments to ensure that the cumulative impacts are considered in full, including the grid connection aspects of a development.

S95 Officer Financial Assessment: the proposals as detailed in (2)(i) and (ii) above are assessed as having the potential for additional member and officer time impact, but are not anticipated to result in a financial implication.  

(3) COMMUNITY COUNCIL MAJOR APPLICATION PLANNING TRAINING  

To take urgent action to better equip communities regarding the planning process and how to present their case, by providing planning training to Community Councils by the Planning Advisory Service and external experts specifically regarding such major applications. 

S95 Officer Financial Assessment: the proposal as detailed in (3) above is assessed as having a potential financial implication.  There would be expected to be additional costs associated with the proposed training.  Actual costs would depend on the nature, frequency and delivery method of training, once established. 

(4) COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 

Without ever expressing a prior opinion on the determination of any application, to engage with our communities regarding the anticipated environmental and socio-economic impacts, given that some within our communities are concerned about a wide range of issues, and to review what actions the Council can legally take to further ensure that local community views are considered in the planning process and for Officers to present a paper to the next Full Council for consideration.

S95 Officer Financial Assessment: the proposal as detailed in (4) above is assessed as having an expected impact on officer time.  This is not anticipated to result in a financial implication.  

Signed: Mrs H Crawford,Mr D McDonald,Ms K Willis,Mr M Reiss,Mr M Baird,Mrs I MacKenzie, Mrs B Jarvie,Mr R Stewart,Mrs L Saggers

Section 95 Officer assessment of financial implications:

This motion is anticipated to have financial implications to the Council as set out in the highlighted sections above.

(4) Right to Strike 

Council notes the passage of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act  2023, 

1.) This enables employers including those in the public sector to issue work notices to trade unions naming workers required to work to maintain minimum service levels. That workers subject to such a notice who refuse to work lose protection against dismissal for not working. 
2.) Trades Unions whose members subject to such a notice who refuse to work lose immunity from being sued in for damages to the employer for economic loss. 
3.) That the Act could be extended in future to other services for which the Council or ALEO such as High Life Highland are an employer, including education and bus services. 

Council believes that all workers have the right to strike and any attempt to force workers to work against their will and against a legally called strike is an infringement of human rights.

Council therefore resolves that it will not issue work notices to any staff employed by the Council. 

Section 95 Officer assessment of financial implications:

This motion is not anticipated to have a financial implication to the Council.

Signed: Mr R MacKintosh,Mr A Baldrey 

(5) Since agreement by Council in January to write to the UK Govt ministers responsible for the UK Govt 4G digital connectivity programme, the Shared Rural Network (SRN), there has been a change in UK Govt, therefore this motion asks that Council resend the letter to the new UK Govt Ministers asking that they pause and review the SRN programme.

The SRN aims to achieve 95% mobile phone coverage across Britain focusing on geographical coverage rather than population coverage. This makes little sense in the Highland’s uninhabited mountain and upland landscapes. There has also been very little, or no, consultation with communities in Highland to understand their connectivity needs and to identify appropriate locations for SRN masts so that connectivity is improved for rural communities. 

In support of the coalition of community groups and conservation and outdoor recreation organisations in Scotland, this Council agrees to write to the new UK Government Ministers to ask that they pause and review the SRN programme and improve it by: 

1. Consulting with rural communities across Highland to establish their digital connectivity needs first; 
2. Avoiding the Highland’s designated and other environmentally sensitive wild areas;
3. Avoiding construction of new access tracks unless no other method is possible; 
4. Adequately resourcing Local Planning Authorities; and
5. Insisting that mobile operators share existing mast infrastructure, rather than building adjacent masts. 

Signed: Ms K Willis,Mr C Ballance 

Section 95 Officer assessment of financial implications:

This motion is not anticipated to have a financial implication to the Council.

(6) With the launch of the Highland Investment Plan and the significant proposed investment across the Highlands it is incumbent on the Council that all expenditure is done in a responsible and prudent fashion. 

Given that this Council has current debt liabilities of £1.142B which is an increase of some £60M in Q4 alone and with a projected expenditure of £2B over the next 20 years this council will request that the Section 95 officer carries out an investigation into options on how future borrowing can be done in a fashion that will ensure, where possible, that all borrowing is repaid within the lifetime of the loan period. The findings and proposals of this to come back to a future Full Council meeting within this financial year.

The aim of this is to ensure that future borrowing by this Council will not result in a debt burden being left for future Councils and residents of the Highlands to address many years into the future.  

Signed:   Mr R Gale     Mr A Christie 

Section 95 Officer assessment of financial implications:

This motion is not anticipated to have a financial implication to the Council. The investigation would be undertaken within existing Officer time but could impact on other planned work activity.

(7) Nature Restoration Fund

This Council notes that Highland Council has been a major beneficiary of the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF), disbursing £676,000 in the last year alone to community groups, and notes that; 

Highland Council itself received over £21,000 to deliver biodiversity enhancement and habitat restoration projects such as replacing trees killed by ash dieback; the nature and biodiversity crisis particularly affects rural and wildland areas such as Highland; Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, as highlighted in the 2023 State of Nature Report, with 1 in 9 species threatened with extinction, 75% of our peatlands degraded, swift, curlew, lapwing and kestrel populations declined by more than 50% in the last 30 years; action to tackle the ecological crisis and reverse biodiversity loss is urgently needed. 
Whilst recognising the right of public service workers to receive a fair pay settlement, this Council therefore condemns the Scottish Government decision to divert money from this capital fund to revenue spending, and asks the Council leader to write to the Cabinet Secretary to the Treasury Kate Forbes MSP to request that the Nature Restoration Funding be reinstated from other Scottish Government income.

Signed: Mr C Ballance,Ms K Willis 

This motion is not anticipated to have a financial implication to the Council.