COUNCILLOR David Kinniburgh, Argyll and Bute Council policy lead for planning, has this week's councillor column.

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ARGYLL and Bute Council’s current Local Development Plan was adopted in March 2015.

Divided into a written statement and proposal maps, the Local Development Plan, along with other supplementary guidance, is used to determine all planning applications within the council area, with the exception of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park area.

Under current legislation a planning authority should aim to prepare a new plan within five years of the adoption of its current plan, and as such, when the current plan was adopted in 2015, work started almost immediately on its replacement, Local Development Plan 2 (LDP 2).

Part of this process requires the council to produce a development plan scheme (DPS) which is reviewed and updated annually and submitted to Scottish ministers setting out the various stages in the process to adopt LDP2.

Argyll and Bute Council approved the DPS for LDP2 in January 2016, and the third annual review of the DPS was recently reported to the planning, protective services and licensing committee.

Since the last published update of the DPS in January 2018 our development policy team have considered responses to a ‘main issues report’, had additional engagement with key agencies and stakeholders on specific issues, held a number of councillor workshops, started preparation of the proposed Local Development Plan strategy, policies and allocations, and started the preparation of supporting documents considering a strategic environmental assessment, equality and socio-economic impact, habitat regulation appraisal record and action programme.

At the moment, all the evidence gathered through the various stages of the DPS is being used to draw up the proposed Local Development Plan (LDP) and it is hoped that this will be presented to the full council for approval during the first quarter of the 2019-20 financial year, the most likely date being the June meeting of the council.

Once the draft LDP has been approved it will become the ‘settled view’ of the council. It will then be prepared for a two-month consultation during the second quarter of the financial year (July-September), where interested parties will be able to participate in the consultation online or at their local library.

You can keep up to date and access information on the Local Development Plan or development plan scheme at argyll-bute.gov.uk/ldp2.