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Key themes of this analysis
128. Some of the key themes can be summarised as follows:
- Clarity about how things should be done
This analysis highlights quite a few issues upon which respondents are seeking more clarity. Some of these are very big issues indeed. The main ones for those engaged in planning and development concern timescales, boundaries, and above all the mechanisms for green belt review and land release. Respondents are also looking for a little more clarity about suitable green belt uses. - Linkage to related policy areas
The way in which green belt policy should be linked to other Scottish Planning Policies, such as those for housing and other land uses, and the interface with the policy for rural development, is another area where respondents are left wanting more. - A role for community involvement
Some respondents think that community involvement in planning policy issues such as this should be given stronger signals and more guidance in the document. - The order of things
Many of the responses reveal a common understanding that green belt policy is first and foremost about quality issues like settlement identity. - Preventing coalescence
In light of this widely-held view, the absence of reference to coalescence and sprawl as issues in the body of the draft text attracts some comment. - Smaller settlements
Because of its widespread appeal as a well-recognised planning policy, many see green belt as an effective tool and think it could be used to guide the development of smaller towns and villages in some situations. - Land values and management
Underlying many of the responses, especially those that focus on finding practical measures to improve design and the quality of the environment, are issues concerned with land values and incentives to its good management. - Particular places
When respondents discuss green belt issues, they often have places vividly in mind where the reality of policy can be expressed and vulnerabilities exposed. Among the examples mentioned are Aberdeenshire around Aberdeen, Kinnoull Hill, Perth, St Andrews, Helensburgh, Balfron in Stirlingshire, Joppa Hillhead and Coylton in Ayrshire, Philipshill and Stewartfield in East Kilbride, Gogar and the airport environs west of Edinburgh, Currie and Balerno, Edinburgh's Arthurs Seat and Corstorphine Hill, the Edinburgh - Midlothian boundary, and Inveresk. - Legacy for the future
This analysis has summarised some of the detail of responses, relating them to the draft text of the SPP. But the responses also reveal the extent to which the green belt projects many people's deepest hopes and fears for the future. One respondent points out simply: " Space is essential for life, green space enriches life, green space is an irreplaceable priceless heirloom". Another remarks that "the green belt must be protected now and well into the future or Glasgow, the Clyde Valley and the other principal cities of Scotland will resemble Los Angeles multiplied a number of times".
Some closing remarks
129. The range of responses to this draft green belt policy consultation can be seen in one sense as an argument over possession. On one hand it is clear that those in the business of development and planning want to redefine and clarify the use of the green belts as an operational tool, as one of a number of the tools in the professional bag to serve the needs of a positive settlement strategy. On the other hand there is no doubt that this well-recognised policy has taken on a life of its own. For many individuals, communities and groups, green belts now have both a physical reality and a symbolic importance. Once individuals and businesses have taken account of the green belt in life choices and investment decisions, they are reluctant to see it taken away or tampered with.
130. It would be wrong though to characterise the responses as merely motivated by self-interest. There is plenty of evidence that people coming from different perspectives are willing to engage with other points of view. And the place-value that people are concerned about is as much to do with perceptions of quality and practicality as with any purely financial balance sheet.
131. Many in the business of development and planning have made valuable suggestions that focus precisely on these issues of quality and practicality.
132. In short then, analysis shows the draft planning policy has been successful in gathering broad support for many of the essentials it sets out. As far as respondents are concerned, that support is snagged in just a few fairly well defined points, and the particular phrases and omissions which cause difficulties have been analysed in detail here.
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