Local Development Plans are published every 5 years by the local planning authority. In Highland Council these are the current IMFLDP and upcoming 2027 Highland Wide LDP. These determine how an area will develop and grow for the next 10 – 20 years.
The new IMFLDP 2 currently still awaiting approval by Scot Gov, lays out development priorities and ‘allocated sites’ for 32 Highland ‘settlements’ around the Moray Firth and Black Isle, including Nairn, Cawdor and Auldearn.
The Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan 2 went through its final public consultation process last summer(2022) and local people had an opportunity to comment on this complex document. In late 2022, Highland Council secured approval for this Plan from elected Highland Councillors but it remains under scrutiny from Scottish Government before final approval.
The IMFLDP2 lists 14 different policies (including Low Carbon Development, Nature Protection, Waste Water Infrastructure Impacts and Sustainable Tourism), which underpin this Plan, but many have not yet been developed sufficiently by Highland Council to be meaningful for the public to understand how they are to be implemented at local level through this Plan.
The next Highland wide Local Development Plan is due to be published by Highland Council in 2027
In February 2023 Scottish Government’s new National Planning Framework NPF4 went live across Scotland, and all 32 local authorities, including Highland must comply with it.
This gives local communities the opportunity to prepare their own community led Local Place Plans which by law will inform the next local authority Local Development Plan.
In Nairn’s case this will be the new Highland wide LDP which Highland Council is due to publish in 2027.
This means that local priorities and proposals already published in a Local Place Plan by end of next June 2024, must be taken account of by Highland Council planners in the next Highland wide LDP and will be regarded as ‘material planning considerations’ in any future decisions on Planning Applications.
This is an enormous and long overdue step forward for ‘community empowerment’ .
In simple terms: by law, in future, the types of development and physical amenities and infrastructure which local communities have prioritised for their area in a published Local Place Plan must be recognised and taken account of in future planning decisions.
So Nairn is on the case – with local community groups starting collaborative work this summer and autumn to gather local views to prepare a Local Place Plan for the Nairn area. To comply with NPF4, creating a Local Place Plan must be community led,not Council led. We will work with the Highland Council to make sure that the Nairn LPP is presented appropriately for verification by them next year, but this Plan will be owned by the people who live here who create it.
The LPP development process will be led by NICE( Nairnshire’s Community Development Trust) as ‘community lead body’ with community councils and Nairn BID representing the local business community on the steering group.
Keep up with developments and make sure you have your say in the community survey and at upcoming community drop in events. Latest information is here on the NICE website http://www.nicenairn.org.uk/lpp/
PUBLIC CONSULTATION on Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan (Summer 2022)
In Summer 2022 when the IMFLDP2 public consultation was underway Nairn Community Councils produced a ‘user friendly’ comments template to use as an alternative to the Highland Council’s online consultation portal. It summarised key ‘site allocations’ in Nairn to help focus local public comments. We also made it available in hard copy in public places like the community centre, library and local shops.
We also held a public meeting at the Newton Hotel last November which over 120 people attended to share local views and questions with senior Highland Council officials Malcolm Macleod(Development Planning) and Kate Lackie ( at the time Acting Depute Chief Executive of Highland Council and Executive Chief Officer for Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey) and Scott Dalgarno the Local Development Plan Manager, on Inner Moray Firth local Development Plan proposals for the Nairn area and allocated sites for development such as East Nairn, Sandown, and the Farmers’ Field.
A wide range of opinions were shared, with many local people communicating strongly that after 2 decades of intensive ‘developer led’ development at Lochloy, Nairn urgently needs investment in ‘infrastructure first’.
The common view in the room was that until pressing traffic congestion issues are addressed by a new A96 Bypass, and water supply, sewerage capacity and flood risk challenges are tackled, with increased school, healthcare and transport capacity to match housing growth (which did not happen as planned at Lochloy), Nairn cannot cope with any more major development.
Local business representatives also asked that economic expansion must be catered for alongside housing need, with more industrial capacity needed to create local jobs and reduce commuting.
Since the Newton public meeting many locals contacted community councillors to say how difficult they had found it to access this complex Local Development Plan document and comment on it – so we with help from Highland Planning officers provided additional guidance for those struggling with posts to the online portal or no access to the internet
Nairn River Community Council 