Highland Local Development Plan – more time to Have Your Say

The Highland Council is providing more time for people and organisations with an interest in future development and investment in the area, to respond to its current consultation on its evidence papers for the Highland Local Development Plan. The deadline for responding to the consultation on evidence has been extended to 12 noon on Friday, 2 May, 2025.

The new Highland Local Development Plan to be prepared will ultimately be used to determine planning applications and steer future development and investment in the area. The consultation seeks views on the evidence collated so far to inform preparation of the new plan.

Chair of the Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans said: “The Evidence Papers highlight the unique challenges that Highland is facing and what evidence is needed to address them. This is presented for Housing and Economy, Infrastructure First, Transport and Connectivity, Climate Change and Energy, Natural Environment, Our Coastline and Design, Wellbeing and Placemaking. The Evidence Papers also contain Area Profiles that focus on how each of Highland’s sub-regions functions, along with important facts and figures and attributes.”

The evidence needs to be sufficient, and the Council needs to assess the implications of its evidence before preparing the new plan, so in the evidence papers the Council is asking for views on this.

Getting feedback on this is important as it can help with the next stage, as the Council prepares its formal ‘Evidence Report’ that will be submitted for independent review later in 2025, before a draft plan is prepared.

Councillor Gowans added: “Feedback is welcome on all the sections of the consultation or just those parts of most interest to the person or organisation responding.”

Alongside the evidence consultation, the Council is inviting the submission of new development site suggestions to be considered for inclusion in the new plan. Feedback to that call for development sites is particularly encouraged from landowners, developers and communities that have land or building opportunities that they wish to promote for housing, industry or mixed-use development. The deadline for submissions is 12 noon on Friday, 2 May, 2025.

Take part here:  https://www.highland.gov.uk/hldp