6.1 Planning Advice Note 37 "Structure Planning" identifies the need for "regular monitoring of the relationship of the plan to changes in the wider policy environment, development pressures, and political priorities if the plan is to remain relevant". We therefore propose to apply a sound monitoring process, which must cover both progress in implementation of the policies and whether this progress is achieving the plan’s aims and objectives.

6.2 Monitoring will record and measure change in the following areas:

This is already done in a number of ways through consideration of development and building control records, housing and employment land, retailing, vacant land, etc. Two major elements currently are the biennial Strategic Forecasts (the Structure Plan Area Forecasts covering housing, population and employment) and the annual Housing Land Audit. These show the broad direction that development is taking, particularly in relation to the release of housing land. The overview this gives will tell us whether the plan is still guiding development in an appropriate direction or whether we need to change course to achieve our aims.

6.3 These and other matters will continue to be assessed on a regular basis. However, we also propose the addition of a more integrated monitoring framework, which will involve setting a series of indicators relating to all the aims, objectives and policies set out in the final form of the plan. Developing this will involve consultation with other partners, such as the existing local Focus Groups used to inform the preparation of the plan, the North East Housing Planning Alliance (NEHPA), the Grampian Housebuilders Committee, and the North East Scotland Economic Development Partnership (NESEDP). The findings of monitoring will also be subject to a validation process, through consultation with the same partners, as relevant, before being presented to the joint Councils for agreement. We will prepare a Monitoring Report annually, the first of which will also set out the framework.

6.4 The plan itself will also need to be reviewed. We propose to apply a process of continuous plan making and we expect to introduce the first review to roll the plan coverage forward from January 2006 to the period up to December 2015, with indicative guidance to December 2020. All succeeding reviews would then be expected to incorporate the first five years of the plan from the previous review, and its main concentration would be on years 6-10 of its own period. This will provide other organisations, developers and the public alike with much clearer guidance on the direction of future growth from here on.