New life

A beautifully hot day here in Oban - and we spent four hours of it inside, at the public hearing of the Lonan Drive planning application.

There must have been over 100 people there - it was only a preliminary hearing, to decide whether in principle to support the idea of building affordable homes in the extension to Lonan Drive, to be managed by a housing association. After a huge amount of information and discussion, the panel, some dozen or more councillors from Argyll & Bute, though only one from Oban, voted 6-5 to support the proposal. The chairman held the winning vote. This means that the developers can now come back with detailed proposals. It doesn't mean that it will be allowed, but I'm sure it will! Disappointing. Another councillor went on Facebook probably before leaving the hall to say that it was disappointing to hear a spokesperson for the Community Council fail to support the need for more social housing. This was quite unfair, as the CC, as with everyone in the hall, made it quite clear that they supported the building of affordable houses, but not in this special wooded place.

Anyway, back home to do more work in the garden, though it's pretty hot I have to say. I think I'll Blip something very far removed from local politics - a germinating seedling of Piptanthus nepalensis, the so-called Himalayan Laburnum!