Community empowerment A REPORT was published this week by the Parliament’s local government committee into the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill which comes in eight parts.

These range from new powers over the transfer of assets from public bodies to the community, to the provision of allotments and the ability of community organisations to make participation requests to improve outcomes of services being delivered by public bodies.

The proposed powers are wide-ranging, for example, participation requests would put community groups in a position where they could come forward with ideas on how to deliver a service in a more effective way, achieving better outcomes and the public service authority (ie Fife Council, NHS Fife) must then agree to the request unless there are reasonable grounds not to do so.

Community groups can be more formal, such as community councils, or less formal groupings as long as they have a constitution. In terms of asset transfer, the Bill gives the initiative to communities to identify property they are interested in and places a duty on public authorities to agree to the request unless they can show reasonable grounds for refusal.

I have published more information on this Bill on my website at www.alexrowley.org.

The principles of this Bill are, I think, correct but it is not clear how much of it will work and there is no estimates of costs involved and these issues will have to be addressed as it makes progress through the Parliament.

Fracking IT WAS great to see the announcement this week from Scottish Labour that, if elected in 2016, we would use the new Smith powers to stop onshore fracking in Scotland.

We believe that the environmental and safety case for fracking has not been made and that is why we are calling for no onshore fracking in Scotland until it has been shown beyond all doubt that it can be carried out safely.

We know that our communities are rightly concerned about shale gas and many people have contacted me raising their concerns. They are worried that it will be imposed on their community against their will and without their consent.

Labour has stated it wants local communities to have full control over onshore fracking in their area through a local referendum. No development will be able to take place without a majority of local residents endorsing any planning decision.

It is also important that we protect our landscape and its fragile ecosystem. Almost all of Scotland is considered to be a drinking water protection area, which makes it reckless and unnecessary to push ahead with fracking without a thorough and comprehensive review of the baseline conditions in Scotland before any applications can be permitted.

The Scottish Government has always had a veto on fracking through the planning process but now with other decisions on shale gas effectively devolved, it’s time for Scotland to set our standards high.

Scottish Labour would introduce a triple-lock system to halt any onshore fracking taking place in Scotland until environmental and health safeguards are in place.

This involves a local referendum before final planning approval is given; halting any fracking in Scotland until the lessons of fracking in the rest of the UK are learned; and a comprehensive review of the baseline conditions before any planning application is granted.

With the new powers coming to Scotland through the Smith Agreement, all decisions about fracking will soon be made here and it is now important that the Scottish Government clarify its position given the levels of concern being expressed by people.

Community empowerment A REPORT was published this week by the Parliament’s local government committee into the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill which comes in eight parts.

These range from new powers over the transfer of assets from public bodies to the community, to the provision of allotments and the ability of community organisations to make participation requests to improve outcomes of services being delivered by public bodies.

The proposed powers are wide-ranging, for example, participation requests would put community groups in a position where they could come forward with ideas on how to deliver a service in a more effective way, achieving better outcomes and the public service authority (ie Fife Council, NHS Fife) must then agree to the request unless there are reasonable grounds not to do so.

Community groups can be more formal, such as community councils, or less formal groupings as long as they have a constitution. In terms of asset transfer, the Bill gives the initiative to communities to identify property they are interested in and places a duty on public authorities to agree to the request unless they can show reasonable grounds for refusal.

I have published more information on this Bill on my website at www.alexrowley.org.

The principles of this Bill are, I think, correct but it is not clear how much of it will work and there is no estimates of costs involved and these issues will have to be addressed as it makes progress through the Parliament.

Fracking IT WAS great to see the announcement this week from Scottish Labour that, if elected in 2016, we would use the new Smith powers to stop onshore fracking in Scotland.

We believe that the environmental and safety case for fracking has not been made and that is why we are calling for no onshore fracking in Scotland until it has been shown beyond all doubt that it can be carried out safely.

We know that our communities are rightly concerned about shale gas and many people have contacted me raising their concerns. They are worried that it will be imposed on their community against their will and without their consent.

Labour has stated it wants local communities to have full control over onshore fracking in their area through a local referendum. No development will be able to take place without a majority of local residents endorsing any planning decision.

It is also important that we protect our landscape and its fragile ecosystem. Almost all of Scotland is considered to be a drinking water protection area, which makes it reckless and unnecessary to push ahead with fracking without a thorough and comprehensive review of the baseline conditions in Scotland before any applications can be permitted.

The Scottish Government has always had a veto on fracking through the planning process but now with other decisions on shale gas effectively devolved, it’s time for Scotland to set our standards high.

Scottish Labour would introduce a triple-lock system to halt any onshore fracking taking place in Scotland until environmental and health safeguards are in place.

This involves a local referendum before final planning approval is given; halting any fracking in Scotland until the lessons of fracking in the rest of the UK are learned; and a comprehensive review of the baseline conditions before any planning application is granted.

With the new powers coming to Scotland through the Smith Agreement, all decisions about fracking will soon be made here and it is now important that the Scottish Government clarify its position given the levels of concern being expressed by people.