A LOT of society’s woes have been laid at the door of the internet.
The closure of high street shops, the demise of bookstores and the corruption of our youth — not to mention the countless hours wasted at work by under-employed staff checking their Facebook pages.
The other side of the coin is that many of us wonder what we did before the unstoppable rise of the world wide web (and more specifically Google), an invaluable tool for research offering a portal to a bottomless pit of information on anything you care to think of.
While the digital revolution has forced groundbreaking changes in many sectors, the genie is now out of the bottle.
As we report in this week’s edition, the Google Earth application is now being used by a tool in helping to determine planning applications in remote parts of the Highlands. The free computer program maps the earth from satellite and aerial images. The technology offers advanced images and a variety of different views and angles.
Planners have started using it on a large screen when discussing applications during Highland Council’s planning meetings in Inverness.
While some will argue that "there’s nothing like a site visit", the cumulative cost of wheeling councillors and officials to some of these locations en masse is enough to make the eyes water. It will be interesting to see how this pilot project pans out as the weeks and months progress.
It’s a safe bet though that even the most cutting-edge of technology won’t put a stop to some of the bizarre decisions routinely thrown up at planning meetings.
