What shocks await us this time through NPF3's influence on the IMF development plan?

Here is the second of my posts further to my brief read of the Highland Council's Development Plan Scheme, DPS.

The Planning service asks itself in the DPS:

...What other work will we be doing in 2013?


Towards the end of the list we find;

...National Planning Framework 3 – We will continue to monitor progress and comment further on the upcoming National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3) Main Issues Report due to be published in March 2013. We have proposed 10 candidate national developments for inclusion in the report as significant to the wider area outside Highland. The Candidate National Developments we submitted are listed 
below:

• A96 Dualling
• A9 Perth to Inverness Dualling/Inverness to Thurso Improvements
• A82 Improvements
• Inner Moray Firth Port and Harbour Enhancements
• North West Coast Port and Harbour Enhancements
• Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Strategic Port and Harbour
• Strategic Airport Enhancements – Inverness, Skye and Wick John 
O’Groats Airport
• Inverness to Elgin Life Sciences and Growth Corridor
• Superfast Broadband

(Well, the 'Inverness to Elgin Life Sciences and Growth Corridor' certainly intrigues me as does the 'Inner Moray Firth Port and Harbour Enhancements' and Strategic Airport Enhancements' further to a little more research I will follow up on this in a post as soon as possible.)

SO, WHAT IMPLICATIONS DOES THIS HAVE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN PROCESS LOCALLY?

According to the Scottish Government web page HERE

What does being a national development mean?

Identification in the NPF should be the mechanism for establishing the need for such developments.  The purpose of the designation is to facilitate the developments through the consenting process.

What are the implications for my local authority’s decision making?

On a strategic level, development plans will be required to accord with NPF3.

Where a planning application is required for a national development, there are some additional steps in the planning process.  These are:

• there must be pre-application consultation, including with the local community;
• the local authority must hold a pre-determination hearing; and
• the authority’s decision on the application must be made by the full council