Deadline for public comment on Moray Firth Local Development plan document extended
The Highland Council has extended the deadline for views on the new Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan until 5pm on April 30.
The Main Issues Report sets out possible ways of delivering more affordable housing, directing development to more sustainable places, better matching infrastructure network capacity and new development (for example schools), and making sure that larger developers address the need for self-build and genuinely wheelchair liveable accommodation for the disabled and ageing population.
For example, the document suggests that within the City of Inverness that developers provide 35% not the current 25% of their sites for affordable housing.
It also suggests that a higher proportion of future building should happen in the biggest, best connected places and a lower proportion in the countryside and the smallest villages.
The document further proposes that fewer but more viable sites are earmarked for future building and by viable it means economic for the builder to build but also for the public sector to support that new development with adequate roads, schools, refuse collection and alike.
Scott Dalgarno of the Highland Council’s development plans team, said: “We recognise the pandemic’s impact on how and when people can comment and that an online only consultation has presented challenges for some.
“We are therefore allowing people more time to consider this important document and make their views known.”