Argyll and Bute Local Plan - Council Press Release

ARGYLL AND BUTE LOCAL PLAN TAKES ANOTHER STEP FORWARD




Argyll and Bute’s Local Plan – a detailed development blueprint focusing on land use - looks set to be formally adopted by the Council in August.

Having approved a response to the representations received to the latest modifications to the document, Councillors have now agreed to notify all interested parties of the authority’s intention to adopt the plan.

When the statutory 28 days have passed from the publication of the Notice of Intention to Adopt, the Council will be invited to formally adopt the Local Plan, unless directed otherwise by Scottish Ministers.

That adoption, likely to be in August, will mark the end of a long and comprehensive public consultation process.

A consultative draft Local Plan was first put out for public consultation in 2003. The Council subsequently published a finalised draft version in 2005 and a modified finalised draft the following year.

All objections remaining unresolved after the modifications were considered at a Public Local Inquiry between May 2007 and January 2008.

The Inquiry Report was made public in July 2008, and in November the Council approved its response to the recommendations contained within it. This response was then published to allow for further public comment.

Council Leader, Councillor Dick Walsh, said: “A number of representations were received, all of which were fully considered by Council officers.

“After careful scrutiny, we have now concluded that the points raised do not give rise to the need for further public local inquiry. So we are now seeking to formally adopt the Argyll and Bute Local Plan.

“This has been a very long journey, in which the public has been involved from the start. The Local Plan is a vital document which will have a significant impact in delivering not just our development objectives but also our economic, social and environmental aspirations.

“I very much look forward to it taking its rightful place beside the Structure Plan as a key basis on which to build Argyll and Bute’s future.”