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Main Issues Report 2013 and Addendum

The Main Issues Report was published on 29 October 2013 to encourage engagement over land use planning issues in Aberdeenshire. An addendum to this report was published on 8 August 2014 to gather views on a very small number of new issues that arose as a result of the Committee consideration of the responses to the Main Issues Report or the publication of Scottish Planning Policy.

Main Issues Report 2013 - Preparation

The six processes that have been used in the development of the Main Issues Report:

  • The Bid process
  • Technical review of the existing policies
  • Stakeholder engagement on what the Main Issues might be;
  • Development of a Strategic Environmental Assessment; and
  • Completion of a "monitoring statement" as required by section 16 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997
  • Completion of a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment

The first 3 stages were used to determine what the 'Main Issues' should be. Position Papers have been prepared for each 'Main Issue' to provide further analysis of what the issues are and what the options may be to resolve them.

These position papers have been referred to in the Main Issues Report.

Position Paper 8 (PP8) Appendices

Main Issues Report 2013

For the MIR 2013, an analysis for each settlement was prepared taking into account new land that landowners and developers wish to see included in the next Local Development Plan. They are presented as six appendices to the Main Issues Report:

In support of the Main Issues Report 2013, we conducted 41 public meetings across Aberdeenshire, which provided the opportunity to discuss some of the issues that the report raises with 1233 people. Some communities staged their own consultation events.

1828 submissions were received to the Main Issues Report 2013.

The Area Committees and Infrastructure Services Committee of Aberdeenshire Council considered a series of 198 ‘Issues and Actions’ papers based on analysis of the submissions made. The Infrastructure Services Committee then instructed the Policy team as to the content of the Local Development Plan.

Main Issues Report 2013 - Issues and Actions Papers

Following the publication of the Main Issues Report on the 27 October 2013 we invited people to write to us on a selected number of topics, and on other planning issues that they it was necessary to review. These submissions have been considered, assessed and reported in a series of "Issues and Actions" papers reported to the Area Committees and Infrastructure Services Committee of Aberdeenshire Council.

The following pages detail the issues raised to us and our analysis of them. Each paper has been discussed by the relevant Area Committee and the Infrastructure Services Committee and on 3 July 2014 instruction was provided as to the content of the proposed Local Development Plan, which was published in January 2015. Infrastructure Services Committee was also asked to confirm the publication of an addendum to the Main Issues Report for a small and limited number of additional issues that subsequently emerged. 

To view Aberdeenshire Council's views on the policies or individual settlements in Aberdeenshire please use the following links:

Main Issues Report Addendum 2014

The Addendum to the Main Issues Report (PDF 2MB) considers only six issues. Three of these are site based issues for sites that did not feature in the MIR 2013, but which the Area Committees requested, and Infrastructure Services Committee agreed, should be considered for inclusion in the plan. These relate to sites in Oldmeldrum, Tarves and Portsoy.

In addition Scottish Planning Policy revised the advice we are expected to follow in respect to the Spatial Framework for wind energy development and heat networks. Finally we are happy to re-evaluate the strategy that we proposed to take relating to development land releases in the light of new information that has come available such as the 2014 Housing Land Audit.

61 responses were received to the addendum, which were reported to Infrastructure Services Committee on 27 November 2014. These can be seen on the addendum to the main issues report page.