The Proposed LDP2 was submitted for Examination by Scottish Ministers in July 2022 and four reporters were appointed to assist with its speedy delivery. The Examination commenced in September 2022 and considered 76 outstanding issues arising from 1,351 unresolved representations to the proposed plan. The examination process included a comprehensive series of unaccompanied site inspections and requests for additional information. One hearing session was held to consider the calculation of the housing requirement on which the local plan is based. Account was taken of the new planning guidance from the Scottish Government embodied in National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) adopted by Scottish Ministers in February 2023. The Report of the Examination has now been submitted to Scottish Borders Council and, unless there are grounds for declining to follow its recommendations [which are limited], the council must make the modifications recommended in the Report of Examination.
The number of modifications proposed is considerable. Perhaps of most interest to the general public will be the decision of the Reporter(s) in relation to the proposed housing at Netherbarns, Galashiels [Issue 35]. After considering all the evidence, the Reporter considers that the allocation of the site at Netherbarns for housing has the potential to have an adverse impact on the setting of Abbotsford House and on its designed landscape. Having concluded that there is no overriding housing need for this allocation, the Reporter recommends that the allocation be deleted from the proposed plan. No doubt the supporters of Abbotsford will be celebrating.
In relation to the overall proposals in LDP2 for the allocation of housing sites to meet the housing land requirement [Issue 6], an issue which was the subject of detailed debate at the hearing between the council and the private house builders, the Reporter recommends extensive modifications to Chapter 6 and Appendix 2 of the local development plan. In doing so, the Reporter has determined that the land requirement for the ten-year period 2023/24 to 2032/33 should be 4,800 housing units (480 per year on average). This compares with historical completions during the five-year period 2016/17 to 2020/21 of 288 housing units per year; a considerable increase is proposed. The policy in the LDP therefore is to encourage and facilitate an increased level of housing completions, particularly in respect of affordable housing. In relation to housing land supply, the Reporter recommends the deletion of six sites allocated in the LDP, including Netherbarns, with a total indicative capacity of 106 housing units. The Reporter is satisfied, even with the deletion of these sites, that there is sufficient housing land in the LDP to accommodate the housing land requirement of 4,800 housing units without the need to allocate additional sites besides those identified in the proposed plan. Indeed, there is a large surplus of land which could accommodate in excess of 9,000 housing units. Furthermore, windfall sites, that is sites which have not been identified for housing in the LDP, could provide some 100 house units each year based on the previous ten-year average. In fact, completions on windfall sites have provided over about a third of all completions over the past ten years.
Twelve new sites are allocated in the LDP with an indicative capacity of over 400 housing units, including the site at Burnhead, Hawick [AHAW1027], a site previously considered for industrial development. Land to the northeast [BHAW1001] and to the east [BHAW1004] is now allocated for business and industry. It is noted in the Report of the Examination that the owners/tenants of the land remain opposed to the allocation of land at Burnhead for housing/industry. Burnhead was first identified as a potential industrial site back in the 1970s and over a fifteen year period the Borders Regional Council attempted to purchase the land for development to no avail [see my book on Town and Country Planning in the Scottish Borders 1946-1996]. Will Scottish Borders Council be any more successful in enabling the development of this site.
There is much more to disseminate in the Report of Examination, which is now available to view on the DPEA website and should be made available on the Council’s own website. In terms of the Vision, Aims and Spatial Strategy of the Plan, there is little change. The Report makes no changes to the spatial strategy although representations were submitted objecting to the concentration of development in the three strategic development areas and to the concentration of improved connectivity on the links to the north and south without any reference to improving east-west connectivity. In relation to sustainability and climate change [paragraph 4.7], the Report emphasises the continuing need to reduce private vehicular travel, which will indeed be very difficult for many Borderers. In relation to renewable energy, the Government’s adoption of NPF4 has implications for the council’s policies on renewable energy. The council’s 2018 Supplementary Guidance on Renewable Energy will, on the adoption of LDP2, have no development plan status. This guidance may still be used in the assessment of renewable energy proposals but as the national policy context within which it was prepared has been superseded, some aspects of the guidance is no longer applicable. In relation to policy ED9, the Reporter considers that referring to wind turbines as contentious, and highlighting the need for careful scrutiny of applications for 200 metre high turbines is not helpful within the context of addressing climate change and meeting renewable energy targets. The Reporter considers that the wording of policy ED9 can no longer be described as “robust” or up to date. Consequently, policy ED9 has been replaced and will now indicate that development proposals for all forms of renewable, low-carbon and zero emissions technologies will be supported and will be assessed in accordance with NPF4 Policy 11, paragraphs b) to f) and other provisions of NPF4. Much more emphasis, therefore, has been placed on national planning guidance in the assessment of renewable energy proposals, including wind farms.
There is much more to digest in this comprehensive Report of Examination of LDP2 and no doubt, in due course, Scottish Borders Council will publish its response to the Report of Examination by the Council’s Planning Officer. I am looking forward to seeing it.
Scottish Borders Planning 