Scottish Borders Council is known for many a scandal ranging from the famous £4 million pound Education budget fraud and the concerted attempt to cover up the scale of corruption which led to it, the Miss X Rape Scandal, which again saw more cover up as files were 'removed', not to mention even more cover ups on just about everything from suspicious planning deals, to School transport arrangements for the disabled, to Councillor's expenses, to giving away Common Good land to preferred builders .....
SBC could be said to be the root cause of the decline of the Scottish Borders into some 17th Century time machine, where business is rough, unless the brown envelopes are given to the correct people ...
In any case, Scottish Borders Council has went one better, if it can manage that, and evicted a pensioner from her own land .... and what will be happening to the land soon we wonder ?
BBC Reports :
Pensioner evicted from her land
A 71-year-old woman has been evicted from a caravan on her own land because of planning laws.
Despite a petition from locals backing the pensioner, who keeps horses, sheep, hens and dogs on her smallholding near Midlem, councillors voted to evict her.
Councillor Kenny Gunn called the decision "heavy handed".
A Scottish Borders Council spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment, citing the possibility of legal proceedings.
"The Development and Building Control Committee gave approval for the matter to be brought to the attention of the procurator fiscal," he said.
Ms Aldin has been involved in a three-year battle with the council over the threatened eviction.
Chronic shortage
She said: "They say they're going to get me a house nearby but how near - there's no council houses in Midlem.
"So that leaves Selkirk, which would mean a trip back and forward maybe three or four times a day to deal with the animals - I just couldn't afford that.
"I bought the land. I thought I would have nothing else to do but to live on it, maybe I was a bit naive."
Mr Gunn said he was "determined to find a compromise".
"I will be speaking to the social work people to see if we can get a house in the Midlem area or perhaps Lily's Leaf, which is not terribly far away from the animals," he said.
The Housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland said the case highlighted the chronic shortage of affordable housing in rural areas.
2 comments:
Not that I'd normally defend SBC, but when someone tries to live in a field without planning permission, it's not so surprising that they get told to stop, is it?
aye that'll be right.
Its her own land but shes not supplying the usual suspects in borders planning with fat brown envelopes so they turf her out.
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