Local Plan

South Ayrshire

Local Plan

The South Ayrshire Local Plan (subsequently referred to as "the Local Plan") sets out the policies, proposals and recommendations of the South Ayrshire Council (subsequently referred to as "the Council") as the local planning authority, for the development and other use of land, the protection of environmental resources and for the management of transport and traffic within the administrative area of South Ayrshire Council. Whilst the Local Plan does not have any formal end-date it is expected that all specific development proposals will be commenced within five years and substantially completed within ten years of the date of adoption of the Local Plan. Particular policies of the Local Plan, such as those concerned with the protection of natural and heritage resources can be expected to remain relevant for the longer term.

The Plan Area

This comprises the whole administrative area of South Ayrshire Council amounting to 1,093 square kilometres. The extent of the Plan area is shown on the Proposals Map.

The Plan Documents

The Local Plan comprises a Written Statement and a Proposals Map. The Written Statement (this document) sets out the policies, proposals and recommendations for the development or other use of land together with a reasoned justification and any necessary associated explanatory text. The policies and proposals in the Written Statement each have a reference number and, except where such policies and proposals cover the whole Plan area, they are annotated on the relevant part of the Proposals Map. For clarity many of the settlements are shown on larger scale inset maps.

Format and Layout of the Plan

The Plan groups all of the issues to be considered under six main headings, each of which forms a chapter of the Plan; they are settlement strategy, economic development, the environment, housing, facilities/services and implementation. Certain policies that have an overall significance are called 'strategic policies' and these have a particular degree of primacy. Some particular issues and certain localities have required a particularly detailed and comprehensive approach. The Strategies included within the Plan are the result of this approach.

It is especially important to appreciate that polices should not be considered in isolation. Almost any proposal will raise issues which are the subject of many policies and, therefore, these policies need to be considered together in order to provide the fullest local plan assessment of any planning application or other proposal.

Rural Housing Policy Guidance

Section 25 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1997 requires that planning applications shall be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The development plan comprises of the approved Ayrshire Joint Structure Plan (AJSP) and the adopted South Ayrshire Local Plan (SALP).

The Council must therefore take account of policies in both the SALP and the AJSP when determining applications. This often requires a balancing and weighting of policies in the two Plans.

Recent rural housing planning appeal decisions by Scottish Government Reporters have given greater weight to Policy COMM5 of the Ayrshire Joint Structure Plan, over some countryside policies contained in the South Ayrshire Local Plan. As a result, the Planning Service is applying greater weight to Policy COMM5 in determining planning applications for houses in the countryside.

Policy COMM5 is supportive of rural housing in a wider range of circumstances than the corresponding SALP policies. For example, there is greater support for new housing within existing housing clusters and for houses that are required to support rural businesses.

To help interpret Structure Plan and Local Plan policy for different types of rural housing proposals a guidance note has been produced by the Planning Service. This can be downloaded via the following link: Rural Housing Policy Guidance

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