Community Consultation

The Planning System has been subject to considerable change recently in an effort to make the process more efficient and transparent. As a result the Council must prepare a Local Development Plan (LDP). The LDP is an updated and combined version of the existing Structure Plan and Local Plan and will replace these two documents in due course. This questionnaire is targeted at Community Councils, other community groups and individuals.

The area covered by the LDP is shown on the map below. The Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority will prepare its own LDP. The Local Development Plan corresponds to the current area covered by the Argyll and Bute Local Plan.

Background

The Local Development Plan (LDP) will set out policies and proposals for the use and development of land and property in your area. It will influence housing, shopping, business, industry, transport and the built and natural heritage, and will aim to guide future development to the most appropriate locations. It will provide clear guidance on what forms and scales of development will or will not be allowed and where they will be located. The decisions we make on Planning Applications are primarily made in accordance with the LDP. In these challenging times, with increasing pressures on budgets and resources and requirements for development to be sustainable, it is important to identify and focus on the main issues affecting development within Argyll and Bute when producing the LDP and not make changes for changes sake.

To this end, we want your help at this early stage of the process to identify the main issues to be included in the Main Issues Report, one of the first stages in preparing the LDP. In particular, we are keen to identify what has and has not worked previously. We would welcome your views on what could be improved upon in relation to the policies in the current Structure and Local Plan. We also want to know how you wish to see your community in 20 years time.

We are requesting your contact details as we may wish to contact you during the Plan preparation process in the future. For sustainability reasons, and to minimise costs, the Council wish to contact you by email where possible.

More details about the process and timescale for preparing the LDP are contained in our Development Plan Scheme.

Comments will only be used by the Council to inform the LDP, and in any publications contact details will be removed. Information provided is available under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Word, PDF and Rich Text versions of the questionnaire are available at the links below which can be e mailed, once completed, directly to ldp@argyll-bute.gov.uk.

• LDP Survey - MS Word Version (.doc)
• LDP Survey - Rich Text Version (.rtf)
• LDP Survey - Adobe PDF Version (.pdf) this version is best suited for printing and sending by post.

The closing date for this questionnaire 31st March 2010 However, if you have experienced difficulties with the online survey form and now wish to mail a response we are happy to extend this period to 6th April to take this into account.

We would also be grateful if you could fill in and return the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form along with your questionnaire(s)