Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance: Tweedbank - Vision for Growth Sustainability

Consider report by Executive Director.  (Copy attached.)

Minutes:

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Executive Director seeking approval for Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance as a basis for public consultation.  The report explained that a 34ha site was allocated within the Council’s adopted Local Development Plan (LDP) 2016 to the north of Tweedbank for mixed use development which included housing and business uses.  The site was incorporated into the LDP as part of Supplementary Guidance (SG) on Housing, as required by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division of the Scottish Government following Examination of the LDP.   The Housing SG had been approved by the Council and was cleared by Scottish Ministers in November 2017.  The LDP stipulated the requirement for Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) to be provided for the site.  The purpose of the SPG was to give greater clarity on measures to achieve a satisfactory development on the site.  This included identifying site constraints to be addressed, the identification of zones for specific uses, indicative housing densities for the residential zones, a possible area for a care home facility, placemaking and design guidance and a pre-application checklist.  A draft version of the SPG was attached as Appendix A to the report.  Once approved the Draft SPG would be subject to public consultation for a period of 12 weeks giving the opportunity for any third parties to make any representations on the proposals within it.   This would include holding a public exhibition in the Tweedbank Community Centre.  At the conclusion of the consultation period all consultation responses and any proposed consequential amendments to the Draft SPG would be reported to the Planning and Building Standards Committee for their review and comment. Thereafter a summary of the representations received, the proposed amendments, and any comments from the Planning & Building Standards Committee would be reported back to Scottish Borders Council.  Once approved by Council, the SPG would be a material consideration in guiding planning applications for the development of the site.  In considering the purchase of Lowood Estate Council agreed that all future strategic decisions relating to the Estate would be considered by Council. Consequently, the decisions regarding this SPG for Tweedbank required to be made by Council. Members supported the paper although there was some discussion on the timescale for development.  The need for a high quality development with a proper community feeling with an identifiable social focus was highlighted, along with the need for sustainable homes.

 

DECISION

AGREED:-

 

(a)     to approve the Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance, contained in Appendix A to the report, as a basis for public consultation;

 

(b)     that Members of the Planning and Buildings Standards Committee review responses received during the public consultation period and any proposed adjustments to the Supplementary Planning Guidance in advance of the item being reported to Council for final decision; and

 

(c)     to consider a future report setting out representations made during the consultation period, any proposed amendments to the draft document and any comments from the Planning & Building Standards Committee for final decision making on the Supplementary Planning Guidance.

Supporting documents:

 

CONTACT US

Scottish Borders Council

Council Headquarters Newtown St. Boswells Melrose TD6 0SA

Tel: 0300 100 1800

Email:

For more Contact Details