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Dear Sir/Madam

CONSULTATION ON DRAFT SCOTTISH PLANNING POLICY 21: GREEN BELTS

I enclose a consultative draft copy of Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 21: Green Belts which, when finalised, will replace the policy on green belts contained in Circular 24/1985: Development in the Countryside and Green Belts. Policy in that Circular on development in the countryside has been superseded by SPP 3: Planning for Housing and SPP 15: Rural Development.

Responding to this draft consultation document

We are inviting written responses to this draft consultation document by 28 October 2005. Further copies of the document are available by telephoning (0131) 244 7543. The document is also available on our web site: www.scotland.gov.uk/planning

Please send your response to:spp21@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or

If you have any queries contact Rosie Grant by emailing rosie.grant@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or by telephoning (0131) 244 7553.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultative draft you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

For future engagement:

If you wish to access this consultation online, go to http://www.scotland.gov.uk/view/views.asp . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is, if you prefer to submit your response by e-mail to spp21@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

SEConsult

A new email alert system for SE consultations ( SEconsult) was launched in December 2003. This system will allow stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE consultations (including web links). SEconsult will complement, but in no way replace SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to 'keep an eye' on all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We encourage you to register as soon as possible.

Access to consultation responses

We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library and on the Scottish Executive consultation web pages, unless confidentiality is requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library or placed on the website.

Yours faithfully

Rosie Grant

C. The Scottish Executive Consultation Process

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body. Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises.

Typically, Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the area of consultation, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses. Copies of all the responses received to consultation exercises (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4552).

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

indicate the need for policy development or review
inform the development of a particular policy
help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

If you have any comment about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to:

Rosie Grant
Scottish Executive Development Department
Planning Division
2-H77
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ

E-mail: rosie.grant@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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