Councillor Mike Barnacle

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Proposed Local Landscape Areas (LLA’s) for Kinross-shire

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The following letter was written by Mike Barnacle on 15 August 2014 about the proposed local landscape areas for Kinross-shire.

TO: Glenfarg & Kinross-shire Community Councils (C.C.’s); Kinross-shire Civic Trust; Friends of the Ochils; Rural Scotland (APRS); Councillors Cuthbert, Giacopazzi & Robertson

15th August 2014

Dear Colleagues,

Proposed Local Landscape Areas (LLA’s) for Kinross-shire

You may recall the enclosed article I wrote for Rural Scotland’s Spring 2014 Newsletter (Page 4) that also appeared in the May 2014 edition of Kinross CC’s Newsletter. This charted the Kinross-shire experience on landscape designation since 2000; in particular the hard-fought successful campaign to extend the Areas of Great Landscape Value (AGLV’s) to the shire’s hill and river borders in the Local Plan 2004, the loss of them in PKC’s Local Development Plan (LDP) adopted 3rd February 2014, due to a change in Scottish Government Planning Policy and the ‘policy gap’ before supplementary guidance is produced on what is to replace them.

I noted that a Review of Local Landscape Designations at PKC was to be undertaken, with consultants having been appointed and sought participation.

I have since attended three meetings of the Review Panel, comprising PKC councillors (I represented APRS and Kinross-shire), community councils (Cleish, Fossoway & Glenfarg from Kinross-shire ward), environmental organisations (Friends of the Ochils, John Muir Trust, etc.)

On 14th August 2014, I attended the evening workshop for PKC councillors (4 only present) at which the consultants final report was produced and at which it was decided to circulate all councillors with this prior to a final public consultation this autumn.

The LLA’s proposed for Kinross-shire are Lochleven, Ochil Hills & Portmoak (the boundaries of which should be checked). Despite strong representation from myself, Cleish & Fossoway CC’s within the Review Panel, the consultants have excluded from designation the former AGLV’s of the Cleish Hills and the River Devon and its gorge. I believe this is a major omission and it will be necessary to lobby PKC through the final public consultation to change the proposals and include these omitted areas. To achieve this, an examination of the 10 evaluation criteria used by the consultants for designating LLA’s is necessary to see what landscape characteristics these excluded areas possess that justify designation. The criteria are landscapes which:

  1. make a positive contribution to the wider identity, image and sense of place of Perth and Kinross.
  2. are rare or unique landscape
  3. are well managed and in a good state of repair
  4. feel wild or remote
  5. have strong scenic qualities
  6. are important for recreation and tourism
  7. have a strong historic character or important cultural or spiritual associations
  8. have important natural features and habitats
  9. form part of the setting of towns and villages
  10. have important views, viewpoints or land marks

I suggest that Cleish Hills meet at least six of the above and it is worth noting that Fife Council’s LLA’s border the PKC boundary here and cross boundary designations were raised in the Review Panel but have been ignored here.

As regards the River Devon and its gorge, it should be remembered that the Reporter to the Local Plan public inquiry in 2003 regarded this area as of outstanding quality that merited inclusion as an AGLV, especially as the river flows out of the Ochil Hills designated area. I suggest that the river and its gorge meet at least eight of the above and I note the strong historic character and important cultural association of the Devon with Robert Burns’ song ‘The Banks of the Devon’; conversely, in supporting an LLA in the Aberfeldy area, the consultants quote Burns’ song ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’.

In summary, I am extremely disappointed that the final consultant’s report has ignored review panel representation on the Cleish Hills and the River Devon/Gorge when selecting their proposed LLA’s and I urge local organisations and people to make representation on the consultation in order to ensure that PKC and its elected members change these proposals and include these areas as LLA’s within the supplementary guidance for our recently adopted LDP.

Yours sincerely,

 

Councillor Mike Barnacle

(Independent Member for Kinross-shire) (Tel: 01577 840516)