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Planning Advice and Supplementary Planning Guidance

Understanding Planning Advice

Under the new planning legislation, supplementary planning guidance has been replaced with supplementary guidance, which provides a policy rather than advisory role. The policy team will be reviewing all the supplementary planning guidance. The supplementary planning guidance will be replaced where they are still required to provide advice on the interpretation of planning policy. The planning legislation does not stipulate a specific name for documents that provide such advice. However, during the preparation of the Aberdeenshire Local Development Plan, the term “Planning Advice” has been adopted.

Untill all seven pieces of supplementary planning guidance are revoked, they are still material consideration. The first piece of Planning Advice has been approved to support the local plan and emerging local development plan.

Understanding Supplementary Planning Guidance

In addition to the Development Plan, Aberdeenshire Council also produces Supplementary Planning Guidance to assist applicants with aspects of planning policy. Supplementary guidance can be useful where:

  • there is a need for an urgent policy response to an emerging issue; or
  • the level of detail is inappropriate for a development plan; for example development briefs, design guides and master plans for areas of intensive change.

Supplementary guidance is used to support statutory development plans, not as an alternative. Statements made in supplementary guidance carry less weight than those in the development plan in determining planning applications and appeals but are likely to be material considerations.

The guidance produced by Aberdeenshire Council can be split into site specific guidance, or development briefs and information to assist understanding of policy and its application.

Nine pieces of Supplementary Planning Guidance of this nature have been approved to support the current development plan

For information on the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Carbon Neutrality in New Development SPG and detals of the consultation follow this link