Aberdeenshire Council’s Proposed Local Development Plan Published
09 July 2010
Aberdeenshire Council has today (Friday 9 July) formally published their proposed Local Development Plan (LDP); one of the first in Scotland to be prepared under new legislation introduced by the Planning Etc (Scotland) Act 2006. A 12-week public consultation period now commences, whereby representations to the LDP, and the Supplementary Guidance published with it, can be submitted.
The LDP, which has been in the making for over two years, sets out the Council’s objectives and priorities for the development and use of land until 2023. Among its most controversial proposals are a new settlement of over 4,000 houses at Elsick, to the south of Aberdeen, and significant expansion to the towns of Inverurie and Kintore.
John Findlay, Planning Partner at Ryden, commented: “Given the importance of the proposed LDP in guiding development in the North East over the next 10 year period it is imperative that anyone with land or property interests impacted by it make their views known before the public consultation period ends on 1 October 2010. Otherwise it could be another five years before they get the opportunity.”
The expectation of Scottish Ministers is that LDPs should be concise map based documents focusing on the main policies and proposals. Mr Findlay, whilst acknowledging the time and effort that has gone into the preparation of the LDP and the dialogue that has taken place with the development industry and wider public, expressed concern that it may not be the succinct document anticipated. “The proposed LDP at 48 pages is not particularly short and whilst it may only contain 14 policies, it has to be read in conjunction with the myriad of Supplementary Guidance which runs to several hundred pages. Inevitably, this is likely to lead to some confusion”.
The Council has stated that it does not propose to make any modifications to the LDP in response to representations. Instead, if they consider that there is a need to change the LDP in response to representations they will advise the Reporter appointed to hold the Examination into the LDP of this, and leave it to the Reporter to determine whether it should be modified.
The Examination into the LDP is likely to be held in the spring of 2011 and it is anticipated that the LDP will be adopted by the Council in the autumn of 2011.