Roddy MacLeod

Information Professional, now enjoying retirement.

[ASSC News @ASSCnews]

🔔 Have your say: Argyll and Bute Short-Term Let Control Area Consultation closes this Sunday! 🔔

There is still time to make your voice heard, but the deadline is fast approaching.

Argyll and Bute Council is consulting on proposed Short-Term Let Control Areas, and the ASSC is encouraging local self-catering operators, businesses and residents to take part before Sunday 15th November.

We have raised concerns about the wording of the consultation, particularly the risk of responses about housing affordability, recruitment and sustaining local communities being interpreted as support for designation.

It is important that you make your position clear. Whether you support or oppose the proposals, take the time to explain what you believe designation would mean for your local community.

🗓️ Deadline: Sunday 15th November

👉 Find out more and complete the consultation here: https://t.co/3MJ8YU2ZfD

Please share with others in Argyll and Bute and encourage them to have their say too.

@FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland

[ASSC News @ASSCnews]

1,500 holiday lets left in limbo.

Argyll and Bute Council told existing operators they wouldn't be affected by proposed controls. Now it says they will.

ASSC calls for a fresh consultation.

⏰ Respond by Sunday 15th Nov. Guidance and links:
https://t.co/EGlNDBQ3Jj

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

Game drive, Kruger National Park https://t.co/sjhu87jLCz

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

Short term lets - urban myth meets irrelevant nostalgia

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@WingsScotland Ban things, control things, tax things. That the SNP for you.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@EmmaRoddickSNP Control, ban, tax - that's the SNP for you.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@conor_matchett They want to control, ban or tax everything.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

On safari https://t.co/2xrX0Zz9kP

[Fiona Campbell MBE @FionaCampbell74]

** Yesterday you didn't need planning permission. Tomorrow you may need it. Our policies have changed since you started your business, so you might not get it now…. **

The gap between @argyllandbute Council's assurances on its proposed short-term let control areas and its published licensing policy is deeply troubling.

The Council says existing operators will not be retrospectively affected.

Yet its licensing policy expressly anticipates existing licence holders having to apply for planning permission or a Certificate of Lawfulness after designation. Refusal could mean their licence is refused, varied or revoked. I read that as a clear route to affecting established businesses through licensing.

How are we supposed to reconcile those two positions?

The Council’s papers also models a hypothetical 10% reduction in existing self-catering properties, approximately 140 properties, returning to residential use.

Whose businesses does the Council envisage closing?

Whose livelihoods are at risk?

There is absolutely no evidence that these proposals will deliver affordable permanent homes. A business closing does not guarantee that its property becomes an affordable home, or even a permanently occupied one.

If the Council provides definitive, published confirmation that designation will not trigger blanket demands for existing, unchanged businesses to prove their historic planning status, including at licence renewal, we will welcome it.

Until then, I cannot advise established operators to take comfort from the claim that this only affects new proposals.

I believe operators have every reason to be worried, and every reason to respond.

Please respond to the consultation by 15 November 2026: https://t.co/ErQ3ayWSkp

I urge everyone affected to ask for evidence, clear safeguards and an honest explanation of what these proposals mean for existing businesses.

Respond to the consultation. It is critical.

#SelfCatering #ArgyllAndBute #ScottishTourism #SupportLocalBusinesses @ASSCnews @st_alliance @Argyll_IslesApp

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

Mkhuze Game Reserve https://t.co/4Vv1shpX1E

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@RosemaryGoring Of course, the real reason for the housing shortage is lower occupancy rates than in the past.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@rosemarygoring It's an urban myth that 2nd homes and short lets cause a housing shortage. I have more on this, if you're interested in setting the rural record straight.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@RosemaryGoring This letter explains the situation that many know well.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@rosemarygoring Your otherwise interesting article on housing today fails to mention the biggest driver of the crisis, falling occupancy rates. This is a big failing. 2nd homes and STLs are not the cause.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@ASSCnews Who has made exactly what assurance?

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@Winnie_xplorer 106

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@FionaCampbell74 I've watched all of item 18b of https://t.co/GCCrUW6cnv Officer Flanagan clearly states WTTEO: even if only 10% of the existing STLs become permanent dwellings; and all STLs will require detailed planning assessments when licences are renewed. Item 18b was voted forward.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@FionaCampbell74 At - Argyll and Bute Council - Wednesday 24 June 2026, 10:30am - Argyll and Bute Council Webcasting https://t.co/eNWgUcdCsp section 18b the council officer mentions reducing the number of STLs

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@FionaCampbell74 And that was used as an argument to persuade councillors to go ahead with plans to have a control zone.

[Roddy MacLeod @libram]

@FionaCampbell74 The council has spoken about closing STLs via the control zones. I'm pretty sure a council officer said "If only 10% were closed down, then..."