Proposed Local Development Plan

The Local Development Plan follows the principle that development plans should be concise, map-based documents. We have given details of our policy and site proposals in a shorter, more concise way as encouraged by the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006. We have also taken advantage of the greater legal weight that can be placed on supplementary guidance.

We present 14 policies supported by 51 pieces of supplementary guidance. The need for further supplementary guidance is also noted in the policies, particularly in relation to masterplans for specific sites and design guidance for specific areas. In this way we have put a lot of the detailed material in the supplementary guidance. This allows the plan to focus on the distribution of development between settlements, the spatial strategy, and the main policies and proposals.

The Local Development Plan also contains six proposals maps that show the plan’s policies and proposals in a way that lets you see where the policies apply and the proposals are going to take place. The proposals maps also show the extent of area-wide designations, such as greenbelt. However, the size of Aberdeenshire and the number of proposals being considered mean that it would be very difficult to create a concise document while showing specific site boundaries. Because of this, we cross-reference the policies and proposals in the plan to settlements published as supplementary guidance which show the effect of specific policies and proposals at a local scale.

We have also included five schedules in the Local Development Plan.

1. A schedule of land we have allocated for housing, showing the size of the allocations made, and how we have achieved consistency with the housing land allowances contained in the Aberdeen City and Shire Structure Plan.
2. A schedule of land allocated for employment use showing the size of the allocations made and how it is consistent with the structure plan economic growth targets.
3. A schedule of items, including their location, for which the developers will need to make significant investment. The “settlement statements”, published separately as supplementary guidance, also refer to items which may relate only to one site.
4. A schedule identifying those areas where we will aim to provide an amount of affordable housing greater or less than the benchmark figure of 25%.
5. A schedule of land in the ownership of Aberdeenshire Council which is affected by policies and proposals for development in the local development plan.

Consultation on the Proposed Plan

Aberdeenshire Council consulted on the proposed plan and associated supplementary guidance in July 2010. Around 2900 responses were received, on over 5750 topics. Further information on the consultation process can be viewed here.

The amended supplementary guidance (sites and policies) with tracked changes, as agreed by the Infrastructure Services Committee on 23 June 2011, can be viewed below.

• Banff and Buchan amended settlement statements (pdf 3.50MB)
• Buchan amended settlement statements (pdf 2.92MB)
• Formartine amended settlement statements (pdf 3.23MB)
• Garioch amended settlement statements (pdf 4.78MB)
• Kincardine and Mearns amended settlement statements (pdf 3.50MB)
• Marr amended settlement statements (pdf 4.71MB)
• Amended supplementary guidance (policies) pdf 1.79MB)

Proposed Supplementary Guidance (2010)