Strategic issues - Scotland

The SPP is the second version of the combined planning policy statement. It attracted a healthy 1607 responses, of which around 1100 were 'campaign' responses. Individuals were the largest group of respondents; others included local authorities (LA), other public bodies, business interests and the third sector, The three campaigns were in support of 'leisure huts' in the countryside, opposed to fracking and concerned that wild land was not sufficiently protected. On the principal policies section at the start, the inclusion of concepts of both sustainable development (SD) and sustainable economic growth (SEG) attracted a great deal of comment. The government has responded to the number and variety of concerns over this by issuing another short consultation on a new section on 'Sustainability in Planning. This specifies that there is a presumption in planning in favor of SD, and that SEG remains the government's key policy goal.