Area Committee gives steer as work on finalising CaAS Plan continues
28th May 2015
Following the latest round of consultation onf the Main Issues Report for the Caithness and Sutherland Local Development Plan, yesterday (Tuesday 26 May) members of the Area Committee were presented with a summary of matters raised by members of the public and gave their feedback on a number of issues.
The CaSPlan Main Issues Report (MIR) it is a discussion document that sets out initial ideas for what the plan needs to achieve for people and places in the area and the Council's initial preferences for where new development might be located.
The consultation period ended on 6 February 2015 and Councillors were advised that a total of 258 comments were submitted during the consultation, including comments from a number of Community Councils and community organisations. A series of drop in sessions and evening workshops were held across the plan area at Brora, Dornoch, Halkirk, Lairg, Lochinver, Thurso, Tongue and Wick which were attended by 284 people.
Some examples of feedback included:
• Suggestions to improve the Strategy Map;
• General support for the boundary amendments to the Special Landscape Areas (SLAs);
• A high proportion of the overall number of comments received related to site options in Thurso west, particularly at Pennyland;
• General agreement with the proposed Outcomes for the Plan;
• Green network assets and enhancements should also be mapped;
• The desire to see outcomes actually delivered;
• To ensure clarity on requirements for Developer Contributions.
The CaSPlan team have worked through all the comments received during the consultation to examine the relevant issues raised and after discussing Officer's' initial consideration, members yesterday agreed an interim position on the plan issues.to represent the Council’s settled view as to what the final adopted content of the plan should be. This will now be used to steer preparation of the plan forward to the next formal stage of the plan making process. This includes taking into account the public calls for additional settlements to be identified as Growing Settlements in the Plan, so Invershin, Rosehall and Thrumster will now also be included, along with Melness which was recommended by Officers.
Officers areThe Council is continuing to work through the details of all the matters raised in the responses so the Proposed Plan - which will when approved represent the Council’s settled view as to what the final content of the plan should be - will be presented to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee on 19 August taking into account results of ongoing environmental and other assessments. Following approval by the Committee, there will be a further period of consultation.
To keep in touch with progress in the preparation of CaSPlan, see www.highland.gov.uk/casplan
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
Plans to invest up to £60m new Capital in Highland roads and infrastructure have been approved by Members at the Council meeting on 14 March 2024. The decision will see an additional £40m Capital investment in roads and transport infrastructure.
