Dundee dirigisme

Over the years I've become a bit blasé about Westminster politics. Thus yesterday's exposure of Labour hypocrisy regarding al-Megrahi left me largely unmoved, as did 2009's expenses debacle. The latter certainly didn't change my view of politicians in they way it did with some people; it was perhaps more a case of confirming my pre-existing view. From that perspective it's probably more constructive/destructive to concentrate on critiquing the 'new politics' of the Scottish Parliament. Or for 'new politics' read 'same old, same old' watered down a bit.

However, it's perhaps local government that induces the greatest levels of personal incredulity, maybe because it's generally closer to everyday life than the shenanigans of Holyrood. And possibly also because the type of things which might provoke a political and media storm in the national context often merit little more than a brief mention at the local level.

One recent head-scratching example concerned a planning application in Dundee. A developer had proposed converting part of a grand old building in Dundee - possibly an old jute mill - into student accommodation. It's the one to the left in the photograph above.

Officials recommended refusal - "site not appropriate for student housing", "adversely affect historic character", blah, blah. Most councillors dutifully followed suit. Committee chairman Rod Wallace said: "I think the location is a problem."

Except that there are already 391 students living on the upper floors of the building. There are student apartments all over this area, including a few purpose-built blocks which have appeared in the last few years. Hardly surprising, because Abertay University is a couple of hundred yards away, and Dundee University is just a few minutes walk. And the city's main pub and club area is even closer.

In particular, it's only a couple of years since Abertay opened a shiny new purpose-built row of mini-tower blocks on one of the city centre's few green areas, in the face of much local opposition and with the university even threatening to pull out of Dundee if it didn't get its way. In fact the multi-coloured monstrosity can be seen to the centre-right of the photograph, and it's around twice the size of the visible part. Actually it's not a bad looking building, particularly by the standards of the adjoining North Marketgait (below), but it certainly puts into perspective the official comments regarding the "historic character" of the proposed renovation.

However, the crux of it all is probably to be found in comments by the planning director, who said: "I am concerned about building the right number of student units in the city. There is also concern of a potential over-supply of student housing schemes." The proposed development consisted of 25 apartments in the context of thousands of students living in the vicinity. The developer had researched the local market.

But, of course, officials and councillors know better, in effect rigging the market and clearly considering that existing developers should be guaranteed a profit.

Mr Wallace also chairs Dundee's licensing board. A couple of years ago the board granted a licence for a new-super casino complex which is open all hours and effectively extended city centre drinking time by several hours. Before this the clubs closed at 2.30-ish. Last year I passed this establishment at nearly 4 am and there was a huge queue of people outside. Indeed, If I'd turned 90 degrees or so when taking the above photograph I'd have been facing the entrance to this establishment. So much for "historic character". Meanwhile, it's not that long since Glasgow councillors were getting uppity because some supermarkets were rearranging their alcohol shelving a bit, because this was contrary to the health objective in the new licensing legislation.

Of course, it's not that long either since Mr Wallace was proposing to bring in local minimum pricing for alcohol, despite his Conservative Party's stance on this at Holyrood and disregarding a similar scheme in Dundee being ruled unlawful a mere handful of years ago. And the council also recently lost another court case relating to the new licensing legislation. But the sheriff "got it wrong" harrumphed Mr Wallace. But we'll no' be appealing. Oh.

Mr Wallace also chairs the licensing committee. Busy man. Last year he led taxi operators in the city to believe that a report on capping the number of vehicles would be available by late autumn. That didn't happen. More recently he said the council was waiting for Scottish Government guidance on the issue, thus it was unlikely that anything would happen before the Holyrood elections in May. Not long after and he said the draft report would be available by the spring. Cue yet another spat with the local taxi trade. Then two SNP councillors supported the idea of a cap "in principle". Mr Wallace accused them of "jumping the gun". Quite.

I also seem to recall the good councillor saying recently that he and other opposition members should be included in the SNP administration's budget negotiations because of their long experience in local government. Indeed.

To be continued. Unfortunately.