Item5AANPF4

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 10/3/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: NATION­AL PLAN­NING FRAME­WORK 4

Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning

Pur­pose To inform the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee of the adop­tion of Scotland’s Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and con­firm its status as part of the Devel­op­ment Plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Recom­mend­a­tion That Mem­bers note the adop­tion of NPF4 and its status as part of the Devel­op­ment Plan cov­er­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Back­ground

1. On 13 Feb­ru­ary 2023, the Scot­tish Min­is­ters adop­ted and pub­lished Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) which is included as Appendix I to this paper. NPF4 now forms part of the stat­utory Devel­op­ment Plan along­side the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP) and the stat­utory sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance that has been pro­duced to accom­pany the LDP. NPF4 rep­res­ents Scot­tish Min­is­ters’ plan­ning policy and super­sedes NPF3 and Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (SPP). It there­fore forms part of the decision-mak­ing frame­work in rela­tion to plan­ning applic­a­tions, as well as set­ting out require­ments for future LDPs.

NPF4 Status and com­pat­ib­il­ity with the LDP

1. In addi­tion to the adop­tion of NPF4 on 13 Feb­ru­ary, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Chief Plan­ner set out the trans­ition­al arrange­ments for NPF4 in a let­ter to stake­hold­ers on 8 Feb­ru­ary 2023. The let­ter makes clear that where an LDP has been adop­ted pri­or to or after the adop­tion and pub­lic­a­tion of NPF4, legis­la­tion states that in the event of any incom­pat­ib­il­ity between a pro­vi­sion of NPF and a pro­vi­sion of an LDP, whichever of them is the later in date is to pre­vail (Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (“the 1997 Act”); sec­tion 24(3)).

2. In the case of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, NPF4 is more recent than the 2021 LDP, so if there were to be con­flict between the two, then the more recent policy of NPF4 would be applied. How­ever, officers have examined NPF4 in detail have not iden­ti­fied any con­flicts in policy. Mostly, the policy pur­pose and intent is broadly com­par­able between the two plans and subtle dif­fer­ences in the ways they are expressed.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 10/3/2023

1. NPF4 intro­duces some new policy areas in rela­tion to tack­ling the cli­mate change and nature crisis and to cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion and the chief planner’s let­ter is clear that it is for the decision-maker to decide the sig­ni­fic­ant weight that should be giv­en to these mat­ters in decision mak­ing. Oth­er­wise, policies broadly build on pre­vi­ous nation­al policy or guid­ance from Scot­tish Government.

2. It is import­ant to note that NPF4 is inten­ded to be applied in the same way as the LDP, in that all rel­ev­ant policies should be taken into account in decisions and appro­pri­ate weight giv­en to dif­fer­ent policies and con­sid­er­a­tions by the decision-maker. Table I below lists the policies of NPF4.

Table 1. List of NPF4 Policies

1. Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crisis
2. Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
3. Biod­iversity
4. Nat­ur­al Places
5. Soils
6. Forestry, Wood­land, and Trees
7. His­tor­ic Assets and Places
8. Green Belts
9. Brown­field, Vacant and Derel­ict Land, and Empty Buildings
10. Coastal Devel­op­ment
11. Energy
12. Zero Waste
13. Sus­tain­able Transport
14. Design, Qual­ity and Place
15. Loc­al Liv­ing and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods
16. Qual­ity Homes
17. Rur­al Homes
18. Infra­struc­ture First
19. Heat­ing and Cooling
20. Blue and Green Infrastructure
21. Play, Recre­ation and Sport
22. Flood Risk and Water Management
23. Health and Safety
24. Digit­al Infrastructure
25. Com­munity Wealth Building
26. Busi­ness and Industry
27. City, Town, Loc­al and Com­mer­cial Centres
28. Retail
29. Rur­al Development
30. Tour­ism
31. Cul­ture and Creativity
32. Aquacul­ture
33. Min­er­als

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 10/3/2023

Use of NPF4 in determ­in­ing Plan­ning Applic­a­tions called in by the CNPA

1. Plan­ning Com­mit­tee reports on plan­ning applic­a­tion to be determ­ined by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will now refer to policies in NPF4 in addi­tion to the LDP. Pre­par­ing reports for the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee is always a bal­ance between provid­ing explan­a­tion of policy word­ing and inten­tion of policy in rela­tion to a devel­op­ment pro­pos­al and provid­ing a con­cise an eas­ily under­stood report.

2. As a start­ing point, officers will provide a check­list of the rel­ev­ant NPF4 policies in each report in a sim­il­ar way to that done for exist­ing LDP policies. We will then refer expli­citly to rel­ev­ant plan­ning policy con­sid­er­a­tions with­in the text of the report where we con­sider it adds to the qual­ity of reas­on­ing or recom­mend­a­tion for decision-mak­ing. If in future we identi­fy an incon­sist­ency, con­flict or ambi­gu­ity between NPF4 and the LDP, we will explain so and incor­por­ate that with­in our apprais­al of the applic­a­tion. Officers will con­tin­ue to review the scope and depth of inform­a­tion provided in the reports and seek to estab­lish a stand­ard­ised format over the com­ing months. All plan­ning author­it­ies in Scot­land adapt­ing to the use of NPF4 and we will share and learn from oth­er good prac­tice and any future guid­ance from Scot­tish Government.

Rel­ev­ance for decisions-mak­ing on applic­a­tions that affect the Nation­al Park but are out­side its boundary.

1. Occa­sion­ally, the CNPA com­ments on plan­ning applic­a­tions that are out­side the Nation­al Park but affect its spe­cial qual­it­ies. This is most not­ably where wind­farm pro­pos­als out­side the Nation­al Park can have impacts on the Nation­al Park. The basic plan­ning policy in rela­tion to wind­farms and the Nation­al Parks remains unchanged in NPF4 and Nation­al Parks remain one of few areas in Scot­land where wind­farms are not sup­por­ted inside their bound­ar­ies or out­side if they would affect the object­ives of the des­ig­na­tion or its integrity.

2. How­ever, NPF4 is expli­citly inten­ded to pro­mote the devel­op­ment of more renew­able energy gen­er­at­ing capa­city across Scot­land through new and re-powered wind energy devel­op­ments. Much of the rest of Scot­land is likely to see fur­ther wind energy devel­op­ment sup­por­ted by NPF4, so it is likely that there will be fur­ther wind­farm devel­op­ments approved for areas sur­round­ing the Nation­al Park in future.

Con­clu­sion and Next Steps

1. The adop­tion of NPF4 is sig­ni­fic­ant mile­stone for the Scot­tish Plan­ning sys­tem that will see the same plan­ning policies being part of the devel­op­ment plan across Scot­land and lead to future LDPs being focussed on loc­al issues and loc­al spa­tial plan­ning. The plan­ning team will ensure that the rel­ev­ant policy con­sid­er­a­tions of NPF4 are appro­pri­ately con­sidered in reports to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee and will mon­it­or they ways we do so to ensure the neces­sary ele­ments are con­sidered as eas­ily and effi­ciently as pos­sible for members.

Gav­in Miles gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk