Details
Question
What is the status of Regional Parks in SPP6?
Annex A to SPP6 requires Planning Authorities in preparing their spatial frameworks for wind farms over 20MW to identify areas of significant protection, other constrained areas and broad areas of search.
Areas which will be afforded significant protection are:
- Areas designated for their national or international natural heritage value;
- Green Belts; and
- Areas where the limits of cumulative impact have been reached.
Regional Parks should not, therefore, be identified as areas of significant protection. In preparing their spatial frameworks Planning Authorities should include Regional Parks as an "other constrained area". Paragraph 4 of Annex A makes it clear that the level of protection afforded to areas designated for their regional and local natural heritage value should not be as high as that given to nationally or internationally designated sites.
SPP6 recognises that in some instances regional and local designations may represent those places most valued for their scenic character within a local authority area which leads to a higher value being placed on them. In such circumstances, a more cautious approach to development may be confirmed through criteria based policies although Planning Authorities should ensure that the policies do not unreasonably restrict the ability of the plan area to contribute to national targets.
SPG should set out a clear understanding of (1) the constraint and (2) the impacts on the particular interest that their designation is intended to protect which must be satisfactorily addressed to enable development to take place.
There is currently a Public Petition before the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament in relation to the protection of National and
The Scottish Government's submission in response to this Petition which deals with the status of Regional Parks is also available:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/petitionsubmissions/sub-07/PE1095F.pdf