Corn Moon, Harvest Moon, Shouty Moon, Fist-waving Moon,

Yes, let's blame it on the moon.

Without doubt these few last days have been their own scratchy season. Perhaps it was best that I attended the meeting. The lady meant to do it would have been better in many ways, for she's quite strong on admin stuff, and is more familiar with the area, while I was addled and forgot to take pen and paper with me, so will be relying on badger friend to fill in many gaps. But there was no denying that things got heated, not the kind of thing that worries me but perhaps difficult on gentle souls. The councillor's wife glared at badger and me and got a little lost in loud indignation. The gent taking the minutes wouldn't have that, and was also quick to dismiss the councillor's claims of the proposal not being his plan.

'It's got your name on the bottom,' he said, 'you're the author, you distributed it, you presented it to us. Whose is it if not yours? Don't shout at me,' he continued, turning to the councillor's wife. Even the councillor himself had been rather astonished at the vehemence of online remarks.

'They did your side no good' he told me later. I told him that lunatics were everywhere, and said nothing about our side. Those disagreeing with him aren't working as one massive group to bring harm, it's not united, and for our group at least, it's not personal. The problem is, if you keep touting an idea which you know people hate, then eventually those people are going to credit your persistence as madness or self interest. No-one thinks this councillor is mad.

Nor was he, I think, trying to deny ownership of the proposal. He just denied it was a plan as such. He called it a draft for a place plan because apparently the town must/should have something called a place plan by March next year. His nuances may be lost on folk in town who translate it as frantic backpeddling. I place the explanation here so I don't forget.

It's a new aspect of planning in Scotland called the NFP4. If a council area has a place plan put together and accepted by the council, the plan must be deferred to before any private planning goes ahead. I do not quite grasp the extent to which it is taken seriously. Government (Holyrood, not Whitehall) tells the council they must create [insert number] of housing units in a given area. If there is an active place plan, within it, the residents can have effectively pointed out places where such houses can be built, ie. brownfield sites. What is happening all around this area right now, is that private developers are building on greenfield sites. If there is no place plan, the council,the developers, and private landowners just come to their own arrangement to fulfil the government spec and perhaps more. Angry Wife of Councillor made it clear to us that certain arrangements and talks are ongoing between these groups, and that some farmers have already sold their land, but carry on working it until the private developers get the green light. A place plan is supposed to give residents some control. But:

First the place plan must be created by a formal group. You cannot just be a resident and put a place plan together. Next, it must be shown to be well researched. Not a penny is given towards this research. Then - and this is where I get confused - the Local Council have the right to refuse it. And why would they accept it if they already have holding arrangements with private developers?

Huh. There's an almost withering irony in that Holyrood also wants to create a sense of greater local democracy, sending it downwards, so to speak; looks like we are all going to be offered a multitude of dazzling surveys, questionnaires, workshops, possibly even courses. Which is all very well, but there have been developments around here rejected by residents and council unanimously, and Holyrood still pushed it through, creating a huge amount of resentment. It makes me suspect the Scottish government will put plenty of effort into seeming democratic, rather less into exemplifying it.

Lordy.

And this is me standing back.

To add to mother and local madness, just got the news that poor Bro and his partner have split up. They've been going for years, Bro is devastated, but it seems some things have become untenable.
The matter reached its peak just as the full moon did.

I'm beginning to think there's something in those old werewolf stories.

And me, well, the hospital check up was OK. Need more cheese. More rest. Possibly less full moon.