The Peebles Civic Society is now in its 36^th year.  The committee met eleven times on the third Tuesday of each month to deal with maters that fall within the Society’s terms of reference.  As usual many of the issues that the committee has addressed in the past have continued to need attention. You might find it useful to refer to our last annual report.  This can be seen on our website www.peeblescivicsociety.co.uk .  Ronald Ireland continues as our chairman and Graham Murray as vice chairman and I  continue as Hon Secretary.  This year Howard Clarke retired from the committee and we thank him for his valuable work as minutes secretary.   Tom Swanston joined the committee this year.

We have met once with the Tweeddale East and West Councillors and have kept them up to date with any issues that we felt appropriate.  We also liased with the Community Council and the newly formed Peebles Forum.

Some 55 applications were referred to the Society for comment.  We manage to meet the reduced consultation time by allocating members of the committee the task of reviewing these between meetings and informal consultations as the need arises.  Unlike last year there have been no major planning application issues.  We have raised our concern over the piecemeal alterations to the Chambers Institution without a master plan being prepared by the Council.

The main issue that we have dealt with for both the Structure Plan and the Local Plan has been the number of houses needing to be provided between now and 2018 and beyond to 2026.  We have for a long time been concerned that over development was occurring.  We therefore undertook our own review of the Housing Land Audit that forms the basis for housing provision against the demographic needs.  Our assessment indicated that the projected needs were mostly being met by sites for which planning permission had already been granted and by developments that were already complete.   We had already raised our concerns as objections to the Structure Plan Alteration.   The Structure Plan Alteration was placed before the Scottish Government late in 2008 and we were given the opportunity to comment.  We had supported the proposal by the Scottish Borders Council to instigate restraint on housing growth in the Northern Housing Market area that includes Peebles and were disappointed that this was turned down by the Scottish Government. We voiced this in our response to the Scottish Government and this was circulated to the Tweeddale Councillors and local MSP’s.  In August the Revised Local Plan was circulated by the Council for consultation and we were pleased to note that our concerns over the housing provision had been accommodated and that there was now a focus on the provision of affordable housing that has been publicised by the Council earlier in the year.  We are still concerned about the extension to the industrial land at South Parks and shall be responding accordingly.

Peebles Conservation Area

Our main concern here this year has been the redecoration of shop fronts in the High Street, Eastgate and Northgate without seeking planning consent.  This issue has been raised with the Council’s planning department. 

One of our members attended a seminar on common good legislation and case law.  We are liasing with parties in Selkirk who are also dealing with the Council over Common Good matters, and with an independent Scottish Common Good pressure group.

Chambers Institution 150^th Anniversary.

The Civic Society assisted in obtaining the grant funding and preparing the content for the celebration exhibition and the Guide for the Chambers Walk.

Postcard for Peebles.

This annual event took place again this year and we must thank Peter Norris and all the competition entrants for their enthusiasm and photographic skills.

The society website is at www.peeblescivicsociety.co.uk and has our planning application responses and other information posted.

Membership and AGM

Peebles Civic Society

This report outlines the work of the society during its 35^th year. The committee met eleven times on the third Tuesday of the month to deal with matters that fall within the Society’s terms of reference.  Again this year has been very busy.  As usual many of the issues that the committee has addressed have continued from last year and you might find it helpful to refer to last year’s report.  This can be seen at our website:  www.peeblescivicsociety.co.uk  .  Ronald Ireland has taken over the role of chairman from Peter Norris who retired at the end of 2007.  Graeme Murray is vice chairman and I continue as Hon secretary.

We have met once this year in May with a group of the Tweeddale East and West  Councillors to discuss a wide range of issues that concern us.  The views of the society are respected but not necessarily accepted.  We continue to liase with the Community Council and recently we have initiated a new group called Peebles Forum.  This new group comprises representatives from a number of groups with particular interest in Peebles with the purpose of identifying and sharing concerns and to combine to express our views with more effect.

Scottish Borders Local Plan and the Structure Plan Alteration.

We responded to the Final Draft of the Scottish Borders Local Plan in January following the findings of the Reporter’s Report discussing issues such as our objection to the siting of the primary school at Neidpath, issues concerned with the safeguarding of future housing land and the status of Government Policy and Guidance documents specially in relation to Conservation Areas. The Scottish Borders Local Plan has now been formally adopted by Scottish Borders Council.   We also responded to the Draft Scottish Borders Structure Plan Alteration that deals with the provision of housing land beyond the period of the Scottish Borders Local Plan for the period up to 2026 to give a longer term view.  We raised a question on the flexibility factor of the Baseline Housing Land Requirement that increases the allocation by 20 %.  We have not had a satisfactory explanation of the application of this factor. We continued to express our concerns about the rate of release of land for housing and the pressures from developers on the requirement for a five-year land supply.  This pressure has now been realised in the Structure Plan Alteration.  The Scottish Borders Structure Plan alteration is now before the Scottish Government for review before adoption by Scottish Borders Council. We shall monitor the release of land for building against the target to see how land release is being managed.  We look forward to receiving the draft Peebles Settlement Capacity Study for review.

Peebles Conservation Area. 

The Conservation Area has been extended to the boundaries that we suggested in our Conservation Area Appraisal 2002 and part of our suggestions for the extension of the Core Area / Prime Frontage areas have been adopted.  We were disappointed that the Local Plan did not address the need for policies on the replacement of front doors and dormer windows and we shall continue to press for action on these.  We were involved with presenting our views to the working party on the new replacement widows policy and guidance notes and some of our comments have been adopted but we are disappointed that our suggested term ‘truly like for like’ for the criteria of acceptance of replacement windows has been weakened.

We continue to assist the Council in carrying out the review of titles of properties listed as in the Common Good Schedule. 

Planning Applications

Some 49 planning applications were referred to the society for comment, not so many as last year.  We manage that change in the time limit for response by allocating members of the committee the task of reviewing these between meetings and this appears to be working well.  The majority of applications are those involving window replacement and we continue to voice our concerns over the standard of replacements.   The scale of the housing development at Whitehaugh Park concerned us both with the  rate of release of land for housing and the housing density of the proposed design.  We also noted the absence of a design brief.  Another important issue that arose this year was the proposal to create a bus park on land along the road to Edinburgh at Winkston that was subject to two planning applications during the year.  We vigorously opposed both of these and we are pleased that consent has not been given. Although not yet a planning application we were involved in consultation with the developer for the Shell Petrol station site at the Innerleithen Road roundabout. We voiced our great concern at the proposal to remove the petrol station and the nature of the retail development and the scale and poor quality of design of the new building.

We continue to run the annual Postcard for Peebles managed by Peter Norris and we provide Town Walk leaflets for sale through the Tourist Information Centre.  We have made one commendation this year, the tontine hotel for the external repainting and sign.

The society website is at www.peeblescivicsociety.co.uk at which planning application responses and other information is posted.  Please visit it and make suggestions on other matters that could be posted.

Membership and AGM 

Membership stands at 270.  We are always looking for new members so please pass this report on to friends and neighbours and ask them to join by paying £2 to the treasurer, Paul Jennings, 9 Kirkland Street, Peebles, tel 724042 or the secretary Gerard Bakker, 13 Drovers Way, Peebles, tel. 721985.  The AGM is on Wednesday 5th November at 7.30 at the Macfarlane Hall, Peebles Old Parish Church following the November public meeting.

The Winter Programme of Public Meetings

The winter programme of meetings is: Wednesday 5^th November 2008 ‘Modernising the Planning System’, a talk by Brian Frater, Head of Planning and Building Standards, Scottish Borders Council at 7.30pm in the MacFarlane Hall, Peebles Old Parish Church.  The February meeting is on Tuesday 24^th February 2009 ‘Scotland’s Architectural Heritage’ a talk by Malcolm Fraser, Architect.  This is a joint meeting with the Peebles Old Parish Church Forum at 7.30pm in the Peebles Old Parish Church.  The March meeting is on Wednesday 4^th March ‘ Heart of Hawick – A Heritage Project’ a talk by Mark Douglas, Principal Officer (Heritage & Design) Scottish Borders Council in the MacFarlane Hall, Peebles Old Parish Church at 7.30pm.  These meetings are open to non-members so please bring your friends.

Gerard Bakker,  Hon Sec. October 2008.

Recent Annual Reports:-