CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Paper 1 | 16^th August 2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN 2020: SUB­MIS­SION FOR EXAMINATION

Pre­pared by: GAV­IN MILES, HEAD OF PLAN­NING & COM­MUNIT­IES DAN HAR­RIS, PLAN­NING MAN­AGER (FOR­WARD PLAN­NING & SER­VICE IMPROVEMENT)

Pur­pose

To seek the Board’s agree­ment to sub­mit the Pro­posed Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 and asso­ci­ated doc­u­ments to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for their form­al con­sid­er­a­tion in accord­ance with sec­tions 18(4) and 19(1) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997.

Recom­mend­a­tion

That the Board:

• Approves the Sched­ule 4 documents;
• Approves the State­ment of Con­form­ity with the Par­ti­cip­a­tion Statement;
• Agree to sub­mit the Pro­posed Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 and asso­ci­ated sup­port­ing doc­u­ments to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for their form­al consideration.

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LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN 2020: SUB­MIS­SION FOR EXAM­IN­A­TION – FOR DECISION

Back­ground and Context

1. All plan­ning author­it­ies in Scot­land are required by law to pub­lish a Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) for their area. The LDP should set out policies and site alloc­a­tions to guide the devel­op­ment and use of land with­in the plan area. Cur­rent legis­la­tion requires the LDP to be kept up-to-date and reviewed at least every five years. The exist­ing LDP for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park was adop­ted in March 2015 and a new LDP must there­fore be adop­ted in 2020.

2. The pro­cess for pro­du­cing an LDP is set out in plan­ning legis­la­tion and includes a num­ber of key stages: a) Identi­fy­ing and con­sult­ing on the key issues for the LDP through a Main Issues Report; b) Pro­du­cing a Pro­posed LDP to out­line the plan­ning authority’s settled view on policies and pro­pos­als for the devel­op­ment and use of land; and c) Sub­ject­ing the Pro­posed LDP to pub­lic scru­tiny and then an inde­pend­ent exam­in­a­tion by a Report­er appoin­ted by Scot­tish Ministers

3. The CNPA con­sul­ted on a Main Issues Report (MIR) from 17 Novem­ber 2017 to 2 March 2018 where we received 329 form­al responses. A report sum­mar­ising the con­sulta­tion responses and seek­ing dir­ec­tion on how to take them into account in devel­op­ing the Pro­posed LDP was con­sidered by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in June 2018¹.

4. A fur­ther focused con­sulta­tion on a small num­ber of addi­tion­al sites was under­taken between 13 August to 21 Septem­ber 2018, and a report sum­mar­ising the 72 responses and seek­ing dir­ec­tion on wheth­er or not to include the new sites in the Pro­posed LDP in light of the con­sulta­tion com­ments was con­sidered by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in Novem­ber 2018².

5. The Pro­posed Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan was pub­lished for con­sulta­tion from 25^th Janu­ary to 5^th April 2019, fol­low­ing approv­al of the con­tent and con­sulta­tion peri­od by the CNPA Board on 7 Decem­ber 2018³. The Pro­posed LDP rep­res­ents the CNPA’s settled view as to what the final adop­ted plan should be, tak­ing account of guid­ance in the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work and Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy and tak­ing for­ward the strategy of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022.

The route to adop­tion of the LDP

1. Where an author­ity receives form­al responses object­ing to a Pro­posed LDP they have three options to pro­gress the Plan towards adoption:

   a) Where there are unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions, but the Author­ity decides to make no noti­fi­able modi­fic­a­tions, they are to pub­lish the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and sub­mit it to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion by a Report­er from the Dir­ect­or­ate for Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals (DPEA). b) Where the author­ity decides to make noti­fi­able modi­fic­a­tions (defined as changes which add, remove or sig­ni­fic­antly alter any policies or pro­pos­als in the Pro­posed Plan), they are to pub­lish the mod­i­fied Plan and spe­cify a date (at least 6 weeks ahead) by which time fur­ther rep­res­ent­a­tions may be made, noti­fy­ing par­tic­u­lar parties affected by changes in alloc­a­tions. The author­ity may then fur­ther modi­fy the plan or sub­mit it to Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion. c) Where the author­ity decides to make modi­fic­a­tions that change the under­ly­ing aims or strategy of the Pro­posed Plan, they are they are to pub­lish a new Plan and spe­cify a date (at least 6 weeks ahead) by which time fur­ther rep­res­ent­a­tions may be made, noti­fy­ing parties affected by all alloc­a­tions. The author­ity may then fur­ther modi­fy the plan or sub­mit it to Min­is­ters for examination.

2. Giv­en the time and resource spent on pre­par­ing a sound evid­ence base and on con­sulta­tion at the Main Issues stage, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment expects plan­ning author­it­ies to take the first route in all but excep­tion­al cases. The exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed LDP allows an author­ity to indic­ate to the Report­er where they con­sider a modi­fic­a­tion would be appro­pri­ate for the Report­er to take into account in mak­ing their recommendations.

3. The Author­ity is required to sub­mit the fol­low­ing to the DPEA: a) The Pro­posed LDP; b) The asso­ci­ated sup­port­ing reports (that are not sub­ject to exam­in­a­tion and may be updated fol­low­ing the report­ers recommendations):

    i. Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA)
    ii. Strategic Environmental Assessment Environmental Report (SEA)
    iii. Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA)
   

   c) The unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions sub­mit­ted pri­or to the close of the peri­od of rep­res­ent­a­tions; d) The Authority’s response to unre­solved issues (Sched­ule 4s); e) The Authority’s Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment and The State­ment of Con­form­ity with the Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment; f) The Pro­posed Action Pro­gramme; g) Sup­port­ing evid­ence back­ing up either the rep­res­ent­a­tions or the Authority’s responses.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions received dur­ing the con­sulta­tion on the Pro­posed LDP

1. A total of 207 form­al responses to the Pro­posed LDP con­sulta­tion were received from a broad range of organ­isa­tions and private indi­vidu­als and to all parts of the Plan. The responses can be viewed on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s web­site at www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​a​r​k​-​a​u​t​h​o​r​i​t​y​/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​/​l​o​c​a​l​-​d​e​v​-​p​l​a​n​/​l​o​c​a​l​-​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​p​l​a​n​-​2​0​2​0​/​c​o​n​s​u​l​t​a​t​i​o​n​-​r​e​s​p​onses.

2. The responses included com­ments of sup­port, gen­er­al com­ments and objec­tions to parts of the Plan. Where rep­res­ent­a­tions raise issues of objec­tion that we do not con­sider can be resolved, they are covered in detail with­in the Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ments in Annex 1.

3. The plan­ning team have under­taken train­ing with the DPEA and have been in close liais­on with the DPEA to ensure issues and the CNPA’s responses in the Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ments are presen­ted most effect­ively for exam­in­a­tion. Each issue is covered by: a list of those people and organ­isa­tions who have unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions; a sum­mary of the rel­ev­ant issues raised in rep­res­ent­a­tions; the modi­fic­a­tions sought by rep­res­ent­a­tions to the Pro­posed Plan; and the CNPA’s response to the rep­res­ent­a­tions includ­ing the reas­ons for not modi­fy­ing the Plan. Where rep­res­ent­a­tions indic­ate sup­port, or made only a com­ment on an issue, then these are not defined as unre­solved issues and are not referred to in a Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ment. The Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ments have been organ­ised into 11 over­arch­ing issues: a) Issue 1: Gen­er­al b) Issue 2: Intro­duc­tions, Vis­ion and Strategy c) Issue 3: Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment d) Issue 4: Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth e) Issue 5: Pro­tect­ing the Envir­on­ment f) Issue 6: Deliv­er­ing Infra­struc­ture g) Issue 7: Badenoch and Strath­spey Stra­tegic Set­tle­ments h) Issue 8: Aber­deen­shire Stra­tegic and Inter­me­di­ate Set­tle­ments i) Issue 9: Badenoch and Strath­spey Inter­me­di­ate Set­tle­ments j) Issue 10: Oth­er Inter­me­di­ate Set­tle­ments k) Issue 11: Rur­al Set­tle­ments l) Issue 12: Oth­er Issues

4. Hav­ing reviewed the rep­res­ent­a­tions received dur­ing the con­sulta­tion on the pro­posed LDP we do not con­sider any sig­ni­fic­ant changes to the Plan are required. Although rep­res­ent­a­tions have made objec­tions to the Plan, we do not con­sider the sig­ni­fic­ant changes sought are jus­ti­fied or desir­able, so recom­mend that the Board approves the Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ments and sub­mis­sion of the Pro­posed LDP to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion by a Reporter.

State­ment of Con­form­ity with Par­ti­cip­a­tion Statement

1. The State­ment of Con­form­ity (Annex 2) is one of a suite of doc­u­ments which accom­pan­ies the sub­mis­sion of the Pro­posed LDP to Scot­tish Min­is­ters and will be the first ele­ment of the Plan to be examined by the Report­er. The State­ment sets out how the CNPA has con­sul­ted with and involved the wider pub­lic in pre­par­ing the Pro­posed LDP and how that con­forms with the Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment con­tained in the Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity on 20^th April 2018.

2. The Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment sets out the prin­ciples for com­munity engage­ment, who would be con­sul­ted, and how they would be con­sul­ted, dur­ing each stage of the plan pro­cess. It has four key object­ives: a) Object­ive 1: Ensure people and com­munit­ies are aware of the pro­cess and the oppor­tun­it­ies to com­ment at key stages in the pro­duc­tion of LDP2. We will dis­trib­ute con­sulta­tion inform­a­tion to coun­cil offices, Nation­al Park Author­ity offices and will also dis­sem­in­ate inform­a­tion through Com­munity Coun­cils, our com­munity liais­on officers, and com­munity plan­ning net­works. b) Object­ive 2: Widely encour­age involve­ment using a range of meth­ods. We will pub­lish inform­a­tion on the CNPA web­site and pub­li­cise the con­sulta­tion pro­cesses through the media, news­pa­per adverts and art­icles. c) Object­ive 3: Pro­duce doc­u­ments which are access­ible, trans­par­ent and writ­ten in jar­gon-free lan­guage which avoids tech­nic­al terms. d) Object­ive 4: Pub­lish an updated Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme every year, set­ting out how and when people can get involved in the pre­par­a­tion process.

3. We con­sider these object­ives have been met and that the con­sulta­tion on the Pro­posed LDP was effect­ive. Not­ably, CNPA sig­ni­fic­antly increased its reach and engaged with a wider range of people than in pre­vi­ous con­sulta­tion stages for this LDP or pre­vi­ous devel­op­ment plans. We con­sider that the way that inform­a­tion was clearly presen­ted in a vari­ety of formats, helped people to bet­ter under­stand the pro­pos­als and remit of the LDP and may have reas­sured more people that they did not need respond or object.

4. We recom­mend that the Board approve the State­ment of Con­form­ity with the Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment to accom­pany sub­mis­sion the Pro­posed LDP to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion by a Reporter.

Next Steps

1. Sub­ject to Board approv­al of the recom­mend­a­tions in this paper, staff will: a) Final­ise format­ting of the Sched­ule 4 doc­u­ments; b) Final­ise the com­pil­a­tion of the neces­sary core and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments needed for the exam­in­a­tion; and c) Sub­mit Pro­posed LDP and all oth­er mater­i­al to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for consideration.

2. We expect that all the doc­u­ment­a­tion will be sub­mit­ted to Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment by Septem­ber 2019 and the exam­in­a­tion of the Plan will start before the end of 2019. Officers do not con­sider the Pro­posed LDP should yet be giv­en sig­ni­fic­ant weight in the major­ity of plan­ning decisions. The spa­tial strategy, policy con­text and major­ity of pro­pos­als are very sim­il­ar to those of the adop­ted LDP 2015 so our opin­ion is that few applic­a­tions would be sig­ni­fic­antly affected by the dif­fer­ences between the Plans and that these would have to be con­sidered on a case by case basis.

Gav­in Miles & Dan Harris August 2019 gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk danharris@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

¹ MIR Sum­mary of Responses and Recom­men­ded Actions ² New Sites Sum­mary of Responses and Recom­men­ded Actions ³ Pro­posed LDP Approv­al for Consultation