Development Plan Scheme 2024
Consultation has concluded
Each year Aberdeenshire Council has to prepare and publish a Development Plan Scheme to inform stakeholders and interested parties of the programme for preparing the Local Development Plan. We are pleased to note that on 25 January 2024 Infrastructure Services Committee resolved that we should undertake public consultation on the terms of the draft Development Plan Scheme 2024. The Development Plan Scheme is important as it will govern the way that we will engage with you throughout the preparation of LDP 2029.
A copy of the Draft Development plan Scheme has been presented for your consideration as a document on the right side of the screen. We would encourage you to read this document, or have it open as you complete the questionnaire to help you understand the questions that we are asking. If you do not think that answering the questions we have identified addresses your concerns then please feel free to contact us independently through our e-mail address at LDP@aberdeenshire.gov.uk. It would help us if you could mark your correspondence with "DPS Response" so that we know that it relates directly to this consultation.
The Development Plan Scheme 2024 builds on the Development Plan scheme published in May 2023. It provides a brief outline of the Documents that make up the Development Plan and the Stages of Plan Development. These sections have not changed radically from 2023.
However, the timetable for the Local Development Plan has been expanded to include additional concurrent work that will be completed alongside the plan itself and sets a revised delivery target of early 2029 for publication, a year later than the previous Development Plan Scheme.
In section 5 Engagement process we have set out the engagement activities for each stage of the plan and have highlighted why our timeline has slipped from that set out last year. Fundamentally these relate to underestimating the length of time required to complete key pieces of work, such as the Open Space Audit and Housing Needs and Demands Assessment that are pivotal to the production of the Evidence Report. It is anticipated that these delays will add a year to the programme.
The method described in the Development Plan Scheme 2023 to prepare the Evidence Report remains un-changed, but new deadlines have been provided for the public consultation that we anticipate on the topic papers that we still have to complete. We anticipate that the Quality Homes topic paper will now not be drafted until October 2024.
Section 8 of the Development Plan Scheme relates to the Participation Statement where we set out the methods that we will use to engage with stakeholders on the activities than we propose for the period to May 2025. The results of this part of the survey will be of particular interest to us. Information is provided on the overall use we will make of the National Standards for Community Engagement, how we will engage with you on Evidence Report Topic papers, Local Place Plans, and a new element the Call for Ideas, where we set out what engagement we will take to understand how communities and businesses can assist in addressing the issues identified in the Evidence Report.
We have tried to make this survey as quick and easy for you as we can. You will have to be registered to complete this survey. You do not need to answer all questions, if you do not want to. The results of the survey will be published here after its close on 15 March 2024
Please see our Privacy Statement for more information. The results of the survey will be reported to the Infrastructure Services Committee, probably on the 16 May 2023, and will be published here for your information.
