Planning and Environmental Appeals Division Telephone: 01324 696455 Fax: 01324 696444 E-mail: [email protected] Mr A McGuinness West Dunbartonshire Council Sent By E-mail Our ref: LDP-160-2 22 April 2020 Dear Mr McGuinness PROPOSED WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN THE TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING (DEVELOPMENT PLANNING) (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2008 SUBMISSION OF THE REPORT OF THE EXAMINATION We refer to our appointment by the Scottish Ministers to conduct the examination of the above proposed plan. Having satisfied ourselves that the planning authority’s consultation and engagement exercises conformed with their participation statement our examination of the proposed plan commenced on 22 August 2019. We have completed the examination and now submit our report. In our examination we considered all 36 issues arising from unresolved representations identified by yourselves to the Proposed Local Development Plan. In each case, we have taken account of the original representations, as well as your summaries of the representations and your responses to such, and we have set out our conclusions and recommendations in relation to each issue in our report. The examination process included site inspections and requests for additional information from the yourselves and other parties. We did not require to hold any hearing or inquiry sessions. At Issue 15 of the report, we identify a significant shortfall in the Clydebank area private housing land supply for the 2019-2024 period. We would direct you in particular to paragraph 54 of that Issue, where we conclude that the plan is somewhat deficient in this regard, and suggest that the council should take what action it can to resolve the programming difficulties that have produced the shortfall, and to encourage sites in the longer term supply to come forward earlier. Ongoing monitoring will be required, and this will inform the interpretation of Policy H1 of the plan, and the potential use of the mechanism described in that policy to release additional land. 4 The Courtyard, Callendar Business Park, Falkirk, FK1 1XR DX 557005 Falkirk www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk= abcde abc a www.gov.scot/Topics/Planning/Appeals Subject to the limited exceptions as set out in Section 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) and in the Town and Country Planning (Grounds for Declining to Follow Recommendations) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, you are now required to make the modifications to the plan as set out in our recommendations. You should also make any consequential modifications to the text or maps which arise from these modifications. Separately, you will require to make any necessary adjustments to the final environmental report and to the report on the appropriate assessment of the plan. We will advise all those who submitted representations that the examination has been completed, the report has been submitted to yourselves and when the report is available to view at the DPEA website, and that it will also be posted on your website. The documents relating to the examination should be retained on your website for a period of six weeks following the adoption of the plan by yourselves. It would also be helpful to know when the plan has been adopted and we would appreciate being sent confirmation of this in due course. Yours sincerely Stephen Hall Steve Field Reporter Reporter 4 The Courtyard, Callendar Business Park, Falkirk, FK1 1XR DX 557005 Falkirk www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk= abcde abc a www.gov.scot/Topics/Planning/Appeals Planning and Environmental Appeals Division REPORT TO WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL ON THE PROPOSED WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN EXAMINATION Reporters: Stephen Hall BA(Hons) BPI MRTPI Steve Field BA(Hons) MRTPI Date of Report: 22 April 2020 CONTENTS Page No Examination of Conformity with Participation Statement 1 Issue 01 General 3 02 Introduction and Spatial Strategy 6 03 Queens Quay, Clydebank 14 04 City Deal Site – Esso Bowling and Scott’s Yard 21 05 Carless, Old Kilpatrick 53 06 Dumbarton Town Centre and Waterfront 87 07 Clydebank Town Centre 102 08 Alexandria Town Centre 109 09 Bowling Basin 113 10 Lomondgate Business Park 123 11 Vale of Leven Industrial Estate 131 12 Our Key Assets 139 13 Communities and Place 151 14 Creating Places 157 15 Housing Land 163 16 Revitalising our Economy and Achieving Zero Waste 198 17 Supporting Town Centres 210 18 Built Environment 214 19 Green Infrastructure 219 20 Environment 227 21 Connectivity 243 22 Renewable Energy 253 23 Minerals and Coal 261 24 Private Housing Sites – Clydebank 267 25 Private Housing Sites – Dumbarton 275 26 Private Housing Sites – Vale of Leven 281 27 Strauss Avenue, Clydebank 290 28 Main Street, Jamestown 315 29 Glebe, Old Kilpatrick 322 30 Non-allocation of Duntiglennan Fields, Clydebank 338 31 Non-allocation of Young’s Farm, Dumbarton 347 32 Affordable Housing Sites – Clydebank 353 33 Affordable Housing Sites – Dumbarton 363 34 Affordable Housing Sites – Vale of Leven 366 35 Re-allocation of Land 368 36 New Policy – Community Facilities 377 PROPOSED WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN Examination of Conformity with the Participation Statement 1. Section 19(4) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) states that a person appointed to examine a proposed local development plan “is firstly to examine … the extent to which the planning authority’s actings with regard to consultation and the involvement with the public at large as respects the proposed plan have conformed with (or have been beyond the requirements of) the participation statement of the authority which was current when the proposed plan was published under section 18(1)(a).” Paragraph 110 of Planning Circular 6:2013: Development Planning indicates that in this assessment the appointed person is only expected to refer to existing published documents such as the participation statement, the report on conformity and any representations relating to the authority’s consultation and public involvement activities. 2. The proposed West Dunbartonshire Local Development Plan was published in September 2018. The development plan scheme current at that time was also published in September 2018. It contains, at pages 6 to 8, a series of publicity and publication methods, which I take to be the authority’s participation statement. The methods listed on page 8 relate to actions at the proposed plan stage, which are relevant to this examination of conformity. 3. The participation statement includes the various measures the authority proposed to take to inform stakeholders about the development plan process. These include actions relating to: a) Publish proposed plan online and place copies in all libraries and main council office; b) Place publication notice in local papers; c) Owners, lessees, occupiers of sites (or neighbouring land) which the proposed plan specifically proposes to be developed (and which would have a significant effect on the use and amenity of the site) will be [notified]; d) Notification of proposed plan publication will be sent to all those who participated at main issues report stage, other stakeholders and those on the participant database; e) Social media will be used to publicise proposed plan publication; f) Meetings will be offered and sought to discuss proposed plan and resolve any issues where possible; g) Information sessions will be held across the council area to discuss proposed plan and encourage engagement; and h) A newsletter will be published to inform of main issues report publication. This will be sent to all participants, made available online and in council offices and libraries. 4. A statement of conformity with the participation statement was submitted to Ministers along with the proposed plan. It sets out the manner in which the council considers its actions in regard to the participation conformed with, or went beyond the requirements of, the proposals (listed above) contained in the participation statement. It also lists a number of further actions relating to consultation and publicity activities the council carried out beyond those listed in the participation statement. 5. The statement of conformity does not mention any representations criticizing the public consultation carried out. In reading the representations on the proposed plan, I became aware of some adverse comments about the engagement the council had done, but these 1 PROPOSED WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN comments did not point to ant failure to carry out the specific commitments contained in the participation statement. 6. Having considered the report on conformity, I found that the authority had consulted on the plan and involved the public in the way it said it would in its participation statement, in accordance with section 19(4) of the Act. Indeed, because of the additional activities listed in the report on conformity it could be said to have gone beyond those commitments. Being satisfied, I therefore proceeded to examine the issues raised in representations on the proposed local development plan. Stephen Hall 22 August 2019 2 PROPOSED WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN Issue 1 General Development plan Reporter: General reference: Stephen Hall Body or person(s) submitting a representation raising the issue (including reference number): The Scottish Government (PLDP/659/1) Provision of the This issues relates to general comments made in relation to a development plan reference to National and Regional Marine Plans not being made to which the issue