Work on new development plan begins
Adam Guest
The areas where future developments should be allowed are being considered in a plan by Shetland Islands Council.
Work has started to form a new five-year local development plan (LDP), which will come into force in about four and a half years’ time.
Members of the the special development committee were told about how the new plan would be pulled together, and discussed the importance of community and business engagement in deciding how Shetland moves forward.
Shetland’s first LDP was adopted by the council in September last year.
It is expected to last for five years and all planning applications for all types of development in Shetland are measured against the LDP.
Committee chairman Alastair Cooper said there needed to be engagement with young folk who were the future of developments in Shetland.
He highlighted the issues of a lack of accommodation in the isles and the increased workforce.
“We need to be absolutely sure this [the plan] meets our needs and the needs of the community,” he said.
Afterwards he added: “We have a temporary situation with incoming construction workers, but we also have a situation now where folk applying for jobs in Shetland are put off because there’s no housing available.
“Somehow or another we have to try and improve the situation so people can live and work in Shetland.”
In this morning’s meeting members also heard the council has completed its Housing Land Audit 2014 – a study including information on housing development in the isles and house prices from 2009/10 to 2013/14.
According to the report there were 464 homes completed in that period.
Of the new houses completed 66 per cent were private homes and 34 per cent were affordable homes.
More in Friday’s Shetland Times.
Suzy Jolly
Surely the impact of VE would need to be debated and discussed for it to be included within this plan, would it not?
David Spence
Suzy, you know as well as many other people, the debate on the VEP will just fall on deaf ears.
Even when VEP said ‘ If the people of Shetland did not want it, they would not go ahead with the project. ‘ Well, a recent survey through the Shetland Times indicated that nearly two-thirds of the population were against its present form (interpret what you want from this – easily manipulated for the good or bad by the very nature of the question).
I believe, and no doubt I will corrected, the VEP has received £11 million from the SCT? Will we see this money back into the rightful place of Shetland money if the VEP does not get the necessary backing? I doubt very much we will………….and what makes it even more annoying, we (SCT) is paying the staff of the VEP a wage before the project has even remotely started…………..if it ever does? Why is the SCT being forced into this position of paying staff of a business when that business does not even exist?