An Aberdeenshire councillor has called for more “flexibility” when it comes to drafting the region’s infrastructure and development blueprint.
The Kincardine and Mearns area committee were taking part in a debate on the review of the Scottish planning system yesterday, with Aberdeenshire Council planners seeking suggestions on how the local planning system could be improved.
The talks are taking place across the whole country after the Scottish Government announced it is looking to improve the planning process.
Mearns councillor Dave Stewart called for the region’s local development plans (LDPs) to do more to take on board resident’s concerns.
He added area committees should have “more say” on the finished LDPs.
He said: “I think the LDP should be flexible. Certainly in the area I stay in there has been one site allocated in Auchenblae for a long, long time and they won’t look anything else.
“Someone can be sitting on the only allocated site and nothing happens for 20 years. It is all long-winded.”
He said the document was so “huge” it should go through area committees, giving local councillors more of a say, rather than it being referred to the infrastructure services committee.
He added: “It (the LDP) is just too big to take decisions based on the whole of Aberdeenshire’s committees.”