West Highland and Islands Local Development Plan
History of the Plan
Examination
The Reporters concluded the Examination process of the Proposed Plan and issued their Examination Report on 14th May 2019. All of the changes to the Plan which were recommended by the Reporter were into the 'Intention to Adopt' version of the Plan. This version of the Plan was submitted to Scottish Ministers seeking clearance for us to adopt the Plan on 2nd August 2019 and approved by The Highland Council on 5th September 2019.
Proposed Plan
The three relevant Area Committees approved the Proposed West Highland and Islands Proposed Local Development Plan as the' settled view' of the Council at meetings in early 2017. The Plan was then issued for public consultation between May and June 2017. Over 300 comments were received from over 100 respondents. Around a third of these relate to Lochaber, a third to Skye and the final third concern Wester Ross, Lochalsh and general issues.
The comments made during the Main Issues Report consultation were considered while preparing the Proposed Plan. The content of Proposed WestPlan was discussed and approved at the three Area Committees in early 2017.
Committee papers:
Between March and May 2018 the three relevant Area Committees agreed the finalised council position in order to allow the Plan to be submitted to Scottish Government for Examination along with any remaining unresolved issues raised in representations. We submitted the plan to the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government for Examination in July 2018. You can view more details about the Examination on the DPEA website.
Main Issues Report
As part of the process of creating a new Plan, we consulted on a document called the Main Issues Report (MIR) from April to June of 2016. The MIR asked for views on the main issues for people and places in the West Highland and Islands area, and showed options for future development. A link to the MIR and full comments received can be found below, and a summary of comments received is also available.
Main Issues Report and comments
Additional Sites Consultation
Some of the comments received during the MIR consultation included details of sites not already considered through the plan process. As a result, we ran an Additional Sites Consultation in October of 2016 which sought comments on selected sites that we considered significant enough to require further consultation.
Additional Sites Consultation and comments
Call for Sites and Ideas
The first major stage of the Plan was a Call for Sites and Ideas which ran between January and March 2015. This was a call to communities, landowners, developers and agents to suggest sites for protection and, or development. It also asked for people’s bigger ideas for the future of the area.
Approximately 60 comments were received in relation to the future vision for the area, 250 site suggestions either for protection or development and around 20 requests for community-led plans. Sites suggested for development and existing local plan sites can be viewed using our interactive map.
Schools engagement
As part of the Call for Sites and Ideas process we visited three secondary schools within the plan area. This enabled us to become informed of young people's ideas, site suggestions and justifications for how they want their area to change in the future. Schools submissions: