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DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
ESTABLISHING AND REVIEWING GREEN BELTS
13. Development plans identify the demographic, economic, environmental and social needs of the area and set out a long-term settlement strategy to address them. The establishment and review of green belts forms part of this process. Strategic Environmental Assessment of development plans will ensure that the environmental consequences of the development strategy are rigorously examined.
14. Under the present two-tier system, structure plans consider the need for and review of green belts and local plans define the precise boundaries. In future, local development plans will establish both the need for and detailed boundaries of green belts, except in the four largest city regions, where strategic development plans will consider the issue of need. Outwith these city regions, proposals for any new green belts or the removal of existing green belts will require specific approval from Scottish Ministers. This change will be introduced through secondary legislation.
Sustainable settlement patterns
15. Development plans must consider the most sustainable pattern of urban growth for an area, taking into account the scale and type of development pressure and the need for growth or regeneration. The most effective way to plan for change will depend on the differences of geography, environmental sensitivities, landscape character and infrastructure capacity. Careful consideration should be given to the impact of a green belt on settlements beyond the designated land. Importantly, the impact on private car travel must be taken into account. SPP17: Planning for Transport seeks to reduce dependence on car travel and encourage more sustainable modes of transport. SPP3: Planning for Housing provides further guidance on sustainable settlement strategies, particularly in relation to new housing.
Timeframes and boundaries
16. As a green belt is intended to achieve long-term certainty, it should have a timeframe of at least 20 years 2. The green belt boundary should be drawn to reflect a long-term settlement strategy, and ensure that settlements are able to accommodate planned long-term growth. This is necessary to avoid the cumulative erosion of a green belt's integrity through the granting of individual planning permissions. Inner boundaries should not, therefore, be drawn too tightly around the urban edge. They should create an area between the current settlement boundary and the green belt, suitable to accommodate planned growth over the 20 year period without the need to encroach on green belt land. As well as considering the impact on settlements beyond the green belt, the settlement strategy should also address the need for development in smaller settlements within the green belt, and consider leaving room for expansion, where appropriate. The area of land between the current settlement edge and the green belt should be identified in development plans as the broad extent of future growth.
17. Where land is identified in the development plan as the broad extent of future growth, and is therefore suitable to meet the area's long-term development needs, a wide range of stakeholders including landowners, developers, infrastructure providers, public agencies and surrounding communities can be closely engaged in the planning process at an early stage.
18. Local authorities should work with the range of stakeholders to agree a master plan. A master plan can be adopted by the planning authority as supplementary planning guidance, and will then be a material consideration in determining applications and appeals, as set out in SPP1: The Planning System. This is an effective way to ensure that development can be phased and co-ordinated appropriately.
19. The regular review of local plans (and in future local development plans and their related action programmes) should be undertaken with reference to the master plan, considering the extent to which the assumptions on development demand and supply are still up to date, and managing the development of the area identified as the broad extent of future growth. Phased release of land for development makes it possible for transport facilities, utilities, structural landscaping, path networks and links to the countryside, education, healthcare and other key facilities to be planned in advance, to ensure the creation of high quality living and working environments, integrated into the fabric of the settlement and the surrounding landscape.
20. The continuing relevance of the green belt boundary should only be reconsidered after 20 years.
21. Green belt boundaries must be clearly identifiable on the ground, using strong visual or physical features. These may include rivers, tree belts, railways or main roads and landscape features that form the horizon, depending on their location and the settlements to which they relate. Hedges and field enclosures will rarely provide a sufficiently robust long-term boundary. Enduring green belt boundaries are those that combine a number of these features, creating an easily read physical relationship between the developed settlement and the countryside. When it is proposed to release land from a green belt, consideration should be given to moving outer as well as inner boundaries.
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