Saturday 7 August 2010

Where have all the details gone...

Well I must say I am shocked; shocked, confused, disappointed and worried.

What is the cause of this anxiety you may ask?

Well a few moments ago I would have merely have said I was disappointed by the quality of the maps in the Proposed Highland-wide Local Development Plan. Gone are the clearer maps with the areas in hectares, the exact locations of uses etc.

There must be something wrong I thought, so I checked some other new style plans and searched for key words such as 'hectare' and 'density'. There were no such words to be found. I then had an idea, look on the Scottish Planning Directorates web site for guidance and this is what I found:

Looking ahead to Proposed Plans web page dated 05 July 2010

As far as I am concerned - personally - it is a case of 'read it and weep'.

For more information look at:

Priorities for the New Development Plans

Housing Need and Demand Assessments

And for ESSENTIAL reading

Planning Ahead for the New Style of Development Plan Examinations

Friday 6 August 2010

This is it folks!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the HwLDP Blog dated 04 August

The Agenda for the next meeting of The Highland Council's Planning, Environment and Development Committee is available online from 11am today. You can view it by clicking here.

There are some very important reports going before this committee including:

Highland wide Local Development Plan: Proposed Plan
This report outlines the content of the Highland wide Local Development Plan Proposed Plan and asks members to approve the document which will be appended as Appendix 1 to be issued for public consultation for 10 weeks starting in September. This Booklet is available from the website.

Inverness City Vision
Green Networks: Supplementary Guidance
Housing in the Countryside: Supplementary Guidance and Siting and Design Guidance
Special Landscape Areas - Citations
Draft Housing Land Audit 2010

All of the above reports are very important in preparing new planning policy in The Highland Council area. You will be able to view a webcast of the committee meeting on the Council website by clicking here from 10:30am on 11th August 2010 and a few days after the Committee the webcast will be archived and available to view at the same link.

If you have any questions about any of the above reports please contact us at devplans@highland.gov.uk or call 01463 702259

Time to get involved

REMEMBER:

Having had regard to the representations received on the main issues report, section 18 of the Act requires the planning authority to prepare and publish a proposed plan. Publication at this stage is subject to the same minimum requirements as for the main issues report as described at paragraph 49 above, but the authority must allow at least 6 weeks for representations to be made.

NOTE WELL:

Scottish Ministers expect the proposed plan to represent the planning authority’s settled view as to what the final adopted content of the plan should be. This stage should not be used to ‘test the water’: new or controversial elements of plan content should already have been aired at the main issues report stage (at least as options). Representations by stakeholders and the general public should be concise (no more than 2,000 words plus any limited supporting productions), but should fully explain the issues that people wish to be considered at the examination. There is no automatic opportunity for parties to expand on their representation later in the process. Authorities may therefore wish to consider offering a longer period, of up to 12 weeks for complex plans, to give parties sufficient time to formulate the entirety of their case.

(The 2,000 words noted above is not as I understand it a legal requirement but is meant to focus representations. However you can include supporting information with your representations. Click here for the planning circular that gives yo info on development planning)

I will be posting more on how to go about setting out representations in the next few weeks

Please do not hesitate to get in touch using the apt.intouch@live.co.uk

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Publication of HwLDP imminent

The Development Plans Manager has said that the HwLDP will be available on the council web site on Friday 06 in the PED committee meeting papers.

It is a chance to have a quick look before the formal consultation starts.

I’ll send out the link as soon as I see it but they normally publish the meeting papers for the PED around noon on Friday.

I believe the page will be this one

http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/committees/committeeinformation/committee-mins-ag-list.htm

Where you will need to click on 'Planning, Environment and Development Committee'

Then go to the link for the meeting Agenda (dated 110810) which should appear in the RHS menu you can then click on it and scan through the agenda to find the HwLDP item and read it to locate the link to the plan itself.

Committee agrees to assess

Latest on Council house scheme from THC web site:

The Highland Council’s Housing and Social Work Committee has unanimously agreed to investigate the feasibility of embarking on a new council house building programme. More info here

Extract from committee report:

9 Recommendations


Committee is asked to:

1 Agree to undertake and fund a full feasibility assessment on the equity release model as a means to deliver additional affordable housing in the Highlands.

2 Agree to work closely with the Scottish Government in developing the model.

3 Note that following detailed feasibility assessment a detailed business case will be reported to Committee for consideration

4 Note that a report on the National Housing Trust Model, with a recommendation that the Council participate in the National Housing Trust procurement process will be presented to the Resources Committee on 18 August.

Full report here