Aberdeenshire councillor Ian Mollison is urging residents in the Portlethen and Newtonhill area to attend public consultations into refreshing the council’s Local Development Plan which will be the blueprint for any development after 2016.

Consultations have already begun across Aberdeenshire on the first stage in preparing one of the most important planning documents for the region.

The Local Development Plan 2016 will include policies and proposals to determine where new development such as housing and offices will be carried out from 2017 until 2027.

Residents, developers and anyone else with an interest is now able to comment and give their views on a Main Issues Report.

The consultation period lasts until Friday 31 January.

The Main Issues Report is written by council planners and set out the proposals for possible changes from the existing Local Development Plan. For example, developers have put forward suggestions for areas where they would like to build more houses.

The responses received during the consultation will be considered during the production of the new plan and final decisions will be made by local councillors.

Councillor Mollison said: “The current plan which was adopted in 2012, allocated more than enough land for development. So there is not the need to identify new sites. However there may be a case for removing a site where insurmountable challenges have arisen and adding others.

“I hope as many people as possible will attend the meeting in Portlethen Academy on Tuesday 6 November and in Newtonhill’s Bettridge Centre on Monday 11 November. I am sure Portlethen residents will want to discuss proposals for the town, including aspirations to develop north of Hillside. Meanwhile in the Newtonhill area folk will be interested to see that there are bids to build in Muchalls, to the north and south of Newtonhill and at Cammachmore.” 

Theses are part of a series of 42 meetings, which kicked off on 31 October.  

The purpose of the public meetings is to help people make representations by allowing discussion and questions to planners. Comments can be submitted by email, letter, via the council’s website or on a form available from libraries and at the meetings.