Last Updated on October 30, 2024 by Phil Hamerton
Following an intervention by the Office of the Information Commissioner, Argyll & Bute Council have finally made public all the 136 ‘private’ and 6 ‘statutory’ objections to their draft HRO. These tell a powerful story about the level of worry and stress the proposals are causing and the lack of confidence in the Council.
Many objectors have expressed dissatisfaction over the consultation process and the lack of honest explanation, by the Council, regarding their future intentions. Overwhelmingly the objections here relate to the Council’s intentions with regard to moorings and to an apparent conflict of interest between the role the Council will take over moorings and the operation of its own transit berths.
However there also appear to have been several ‘alterations’ to the objections which were submitted and these are being investigated. At the moment it’s not clear whether these originate from Transport Scotland – who received the objections in the first place – or from Argyll & Bute Council who have supplied the information. What is clear is that a number of objections have been, in effect, gutted by the removal of the detail of the objection and, in at least one case, the objection is totally omitted. Once it is clear how this happened then the matter will be referred back to the Information Commissioner and we will have to consider what other action is appropriate.