Sunset over Park of Keir

We had a debriefing meeting today following our first week taking part in the Park of Keir Public Inquiry.

The consensus was that it had gone well until yesterday morning when something had changed.  Suddenly the developers lawyer began using delaying tactics, playing all kinds of legal gymnastics. For example, an inncoent request from their lawyer to ask a few "supplementary questions" of their witness ( known in legal jargon as "leading your witness") was supposed to take 20 minutes.  Instead it took nearly two hours.


The suspicion, and we can only allege this, that  it was linked to the appearance on Thursday afternoon of a man who looked as if he had stepped straight out of a Chicago gangster movie , or he could have been a Glasgow "bouncer".

He sat behind me even though there was plenty of space. He avoided eye contact, never spoke to anyone and left after a couple of hours.

Was he part of Judy Murray's team - the developers- whom she trusted?
Had the word been passed to the lawyer to "rough it up " a bit?

That is what it looked like yesterday. What had been a very civilised proceedings all week  suddenly became delaying tactics ( all the while costing us money and there was nothing we could do about it).
We ask ourselves: why?