local development plan – Pencaitland and District Community Council

Rural Voice workshop contributes to Local Development Plan

Pencaitland Community reps attended a Winton House workshop looking at how the county should look in the future. The top message was fast rural broadband.

A powerful theme throughout the gathering and echoed by all was that fast, effective and reliable broadband in rural parts of the county is absolutely critical to maintaining a competitive future for the county.

Below we have reproduced the press release that came out of this meeting.

Divided into a number of round-table groups, each highlighted the critical role that fast broadband infrastructure will play in a successful future for rural East Lothian.

PRESS RELEASE: Communities, landowners and businesses based in the East Lothian countryside are being encouraged to contribute their views to the new Local Development Plan. To encourage debate and contributions, a ‘Rural Voice’ workshop was jointly organised last week by East Lothian
Council and Chalmers & Co, the Haddington based surveyors and architects.

The Council and Chalmers & Co have a shared interest in ‘shaping the countryside’ in East Lothian to ensure that its communities thrive as a place to work and play.

The forum brought together a wide-ranging rural voice of around 40 landowners, farmers, countryside businesses, community groups and government organisations at Winton House. Facilitated by Nick Wright and Richard Heggie of Urban Animation, they explored what that thriving countryside might look like in 10 to 15 years time, and how changes to planning rules could help that vision become real.

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East Lothian Local Development Plan (ELLDPone)

East Lothian Council is preparing a new Local Development Plan. This will be a new land-use strategy that will eventually replace the existing East Lothian Local Plan 2008.

At this stage they are keen to hear the views of everyone with an interest in East Lothian. They want to know what aspirations you have for the way the area might develop over the next ten years or so, and what planning issues you think may need to be addressed in the new plan.

A series of events has been arranged to gather your views. These will be run independently by Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS), an impartial, charitable organisation that helps people have their say in the planning system. The views gathered will help the Council prepare a Main Issues Report, which will then be published for consultation later in 2012.

Community meetings for the general public will be held in each of East Lothian’s six main towns, plus one event specifically to discuss the future role of Blindwells new settlement. There will also be a series of additional workshop meetings targeted at specific audiences.

You can see details of the locations and times of the consultation events here. Places at these events are free but must be booked by emailing training@planningaidscotland.org.uk or calling Deanne at Planning Aid for Scotland on 0131 220 9730.

You can find a discussion paper here, which provides further background information and sets out the type of planning issues that the Local Development Plan might seek to address.

If you wish to submit any comments to be taken into account in the preparation of the Main Issues Report, please send them by Monday 12th March 2012 to the Policy and Projects team at localplan@eastlothian.gov.uk or at:

Policy and Projects
Environment Department
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA

Pencaitland Community Council