Next steps for CNPA Local Development Plan

The planning team at the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) are recommending that the new Local Development Plan (LDP) for the Park be submitted to Scottish Ministers by Christmas. The Plan, together with the proposed minor drafting and technical matters, goes before the CNPA’s planning committee next week (Friday 6^th December) for consideration.

The committee report outlines the next steps for the LDP, which is hoped will be adopted in late summer 2014. Planners are asking committee members to approve the contents and to give the go-ahead to move forward to the next stage of the process.

The Scottish Government has introduced a programme of modernisation affecting the planning system in Scotland which aims to speed up and add more certainty to processes. They want to see planning authorities move swiftly through the Local Development Plan process and are keen that authorities only publish modifications to their Plan if the representations received suggest the need for a significant change in direction.

Karen Major, the CNPA’s Development Planning Manager explained: “We could make various changes to the Proposed Local Development Plan at this stage but we would then need to prepare and publish a new Plan and carry out another consultation, causing delays in the process.

“Instead, we are suggesting to committee members that we present the LDP to Scottish Ministers in its current form with a clear indication of the modifications we would support and those objections that we consider unresolved. It would then be up to the Directorate for Planning and Environment Appeals to carry out an examination and consider whether any further information is needed before publishing a report. After that it would come back to us to make any necessary modifications and publish the Proposed Plan which would then be put forward for adoption.”

Head of Planning at the CNPA Simon Harrison added: “A total of 142 individuals made representations during the consultation period in the summer resulting in 350 comments. Every single one of those comments has been considered and reflected in statements that we propose to pass onto Scottish Government.”

The preparation of Local Development Plan involves a number of stages from the preparation and consultation on the Main Issues Report, which was carried out by the CNPA in the summer of 2011, followed by a formal consultation on the Proposed Local Development Plan which took place from April – July 2013. There was also an informal stage included in the process to allow people to consider detailed settlement maps.

The LDP is a key tool in the delivery of the National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), setting out the growth strategy for the Park over the next five years and beyond. It illustrates the NPPP’s long term vision and strategy in a way that sets out opportunities for investment and growth during the Plan period and creates a framework to guide the right type of development to happen in appropriate places.

View the report and related papers here.

The next planning committee meeting takes place on Friday 6^th December at the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey.