4.1 The health and well-being of our communities, both now and in the future, depend to a large extent upon the quality of the environment that surrounds us. The structure plan policies provide a framework for the natural, built and cultural aspects of the environment, in accordance with the plan’s strategy, in particular Objectives 1 and 5, and the aims which include working with nature, encouraging diversity, minimising harmful environmental impact; and fostering quality and the unique cultural identity of the North East.

4.2 The structure plan seeks to promote, protect and enhance the rich and varied environment of the North East. The approach taken is to give special protection to international, national and locally designated sites of environmental importance, and also to foster the natural and built heritage as a whole. This means taking into consideration landscapes and the biodiversity of habitats and species outwith designated areas, and seeking high quality design in development wherever it takes place.

4.3 One of the aims of the plan is to minimise the use of non-renewable resources and use renewable resources within their carrying capacity, minimising waste. Policies focus on the more sustainable use of agricultural land, forestry and minerals. The need to reduce waste is stressed, and more sustainable ways of managing waste are encouraged.

4.4 Another objective of the plan is to confirm the function and role of Aberdeen’s Green Belt. This is set out in this chapter, together with a section on coastal zone management.

4.5 There are internationally important designated areas, as well as national, regional and local sites throughout the North East. To reflect this, a hierarchical approach for the protection of nature conservation and landscape sites shall be adopted, as set out in NPPG 14 "Natural Heritage".

4.6 Biodiversity is not restricted to threatened species or habitats but involves the entire natural heritage, both within and outside specially designated sites. It can be threatened or lost due to increasing development, pollution, intensification of agriculture and forestry and the growing demands on natural resources as a result of the growth of the population. Biodiversity supplies the essentials needed for life, therefore it must be used wisely if development is to be truly sustainable. We cannot be developing sustainably if species and habitats continue to be depleted. Promoting biodiversity may sometimes impose constraints on development, but conservation and development should strive to be compatible and steps should be taken to minimise the potential for conflict. Development that enhances environmental quality, ecological status, viability and biodiversity of sites, species and habitats should be encouraged.

4.7 The North East Scotland Local Biodiversity Action Plan was published in January 2000 and a Cairngorms Local Biodiversity Action Plan is being prepared. These plans outline what can be done to foster biodiversity and highlight the widespread benefits for communities and their businesses of applying positive action.

4.8 All landscapes throughout Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire require care and attention when managing change, not only those which are designated. Landscape Character Assessments have been carried out in order to provide a better understanding of the character of different areas. The assessments can be useful in guiding development.

4.9 Less than 6% of all agricultural land in Scotland is defined as being of prime quality and is therefore a limited resource of national importance because it can be used to grow a wide range of crops. In the interest of sustainable development it is important to safeguard this land, and productive agricultural land in general, so that it can benefit present and future generations.

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4.10 The North East is famed for its distinctive built heritage which includes listed buildings, scheduled monuments, archaeological sites, historic gardens, distinctive townscapes and conservation areas. It is the government’s stated aim to safeguard and protect the historic environment from inappropriate development and provide for change that respects its character and meets the needs of local communities, as set out in NPPG 18 on "Planning and the Historic Environment". Active conservation of our built heritage will provide local diversity and interest, benefit future generations and contribute towards the aims of sustainable development. It will also enhance the attractiveness of the area for business and tourism.

4.11 Government guidance set out in NPPG5, Archaeology and Planning aims to preserve archaeological sites. Where this is not possible, there is a need to excavate and record such sites. The overall objective for the built heritage and archaeology should be to protect what is of value and ensure that new development adds to the quality and character of the environment.

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4.12 There is a national trend towards standard forms of construction that can threaten the distinctive character of the North East. All development should be of a high design quality. It should not simply be restricted to sensitive environments such as conservation areas. Modern architecture can be designed to fit most contexts and good innovative design will be encouraged. Good design in new development is important for two main reasons. First it can build on the rich heritage of the North East and contribute to its sense of place. It can also make buildings or even whole new developments more energy efficient. Good design can therefore make an important contribution to sustainable development.

4.13 The layout, design and materials used in development can also influence the amount of energy they consume. Many buildings in Scotland are not energy efficient, so cutting down the energy they consume can make a big difference to overall pollution levels. There are many cost-effective options available that could significantly reduce energy consumption and other environmental impacts in buildings. The development plan can positively influence energy efficiency (for example, by reducing travel demand and encouraging renewable energy). It should also encourage energy efficiency within individual developments.

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4.14 It is important when preparing proposals for future development, that water management and the risk of flooding is considered. The financial costs of floods can be immense and the risk to lives and physical damage to property means that areas of flood risk should be avoided. Predicted climate change is expected to bring wetter, stormier weather risking more flooding in Scotland. The precautionary principle should therefore be adopted in regard to development: action should be taken now to avoid possible environmental damage when the scientific evidence for acting is inconclusive but the potential damage could be great.

4.15 Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City Councils have formed a Flood Appraisal Group as recommended by NPPG 7 "Planning and Flooding". Its broad aim is to promote best practice and data sharing and to enhance understanding of all issues related to flooding. Additionally, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for assessing flood risk, and is required to provide advice to a planning authority, if requested and based on the information it holds. The Agency can therefore advise in some cases on proposals for development on land at risk of flooding. Where there is insufficient information on flood risk, but it is nevertheless considered a possibility, developers will be required to provide a Flood Risk Assessment for their proposals.

4.16 As well as avoiding areas liable to flood, new development should avoid causing flooding problems elsewhere. Surface water run-off is normally drained into water courses. This can contain contaminants and cause localised and downstream flooding. However Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) can be used as a means of dealing with surface water run-off in ways which avoid flooding and pollution and developers will be required to demonstrate that their proposals for foul and surface water drainage are the best available in terms of Sustainable Urban Drainage. Guidance on SUDS can be obtained from SEPA and their use should be encouraged in both brownfield and greenfield development. PAN61: Planning and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems published in July 2001 provides additional advice on how Local Plans should apply the SUDS approach to development.

4.17 The Water Framework Directive - Developments will need to take account of the provisions of the EC Water Framework Directive once it has been implemented in Scots law. The Executive is proposing to do this by means of primary legislation which it will introduce to the Scottish Parliament in 2002. The Directive requires the sustainable management of Scotland’s water on the basis of natural river basin districts, taking account of all the impacts that cause harm to the aquatic environment, including physical engineering projects. Controls proportionate to the degree of environmental risk will be introduced after full consultation.

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4.18 Forestry planting is not subject to statutory planning control. Local authorities are consulted on significant applications for Forestry Commission planting grants, felling proposals and restocking, and seek to influence the impact of new planting by negotiation, persuasion and objection. The current Indicative Forestry Strategy (IFS) is the Regional Forestry Strategy, produced by Grampian Regional Council in 1996, which can be found in the Report of Survey Addendum. The IFS describes and maps various environmental and other interests and contains a checklist of issues relevant to planting in North East. The Regional Forestry Strategy is being reviewed to take on board the latest guidance, including the Scottish Office Environment Department Circular 9/1999 and will form an alteration to the structure plan in due course.

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4.19 Minerals are valuable finite resources. They are important in terms of their end use (for example the construction of buildings and roads) and for the employment opportunities they create. However mineral workings may have adverse environmental effects, including visual impacts, dust, noise and vibration from blasting. The need to extract minerals must be reconciled with care for the environment, particularly in relation to the natural, built and cultural heritage and existing communities, and to minimising the distance materials must be transported to their points of use.

4.20 In order to direct mineral workings away from the most sensitive locations a hierarchical approach to mineral extraction has been adopted. This relates to the environmental significance of an area and its ability to accommodate mineral workings. There are four tiers, with mineral extraction proposals falling within a defined preferred area being more acceptable than in local, national or international designated areas. The designations within each tier for minerals extraction are shown in Table 5.

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4.21 The North East generates one of the highest amounts of waste per head of population in Scotland and most of it is disposed in landfill sites. A different approach to waste is now being promoted in the National Waste Strategy and the emerging Area Waste Plan for North East Scotland. Waste should be recognised as a potentially useful resource that can be re-used, recycled or recovered in other ways and not simply viewed as the by-product of various processes that has to be thrown away.

4.22 For various environmental, economic and legislative reasons, landfill will cease to be the dominant means of waste management as it has been in the past. Greater emphasis will be placed on alternative means of management that treat waste further up the waste hierarchy. Consequently, more treatment facilities such as recycling, composting and energy from waste plants will be required in future. Most of these facilities raise their own environmental and amenity issues for consideration.

4.23 The development of alternatives to landfill will take some time to implement. It is therefore necessary to identify short-term landfill and land raise options that will meet the needs of the North East as well as more sustainable alternatives. The structure plan therefore identifies areas of search for landfill and land raise facilities based on a tiered approach to planning designations outlined in Policy 26 and Table 5. These exclude tiers 1 and 2.

4.24 Waste should also be managed according to the ‘Best Practicable Environmental Option’ (BPEO) and in accordance with the waste hierarchy. To be more sustainable, waste should increasingly be managed towards the first of these options:

4.25 In addition, at a local level there is a need to:

4.26 Tiers are used to guide landfill and land raise proposals and should be used to develop areas of search for such facilities. It is not always practical to apply tiers to all waste management proposals as each type of facility often requires different locational criteria. However, the tiers may be used to guide other facilities where appropriate, particularly in more remote rural areas where there are no suitable sites within existing settlements.

4.27 In general, facilities such as transfer stations, material reclamation facilities and recycling centres are best located in an industrial setting, where available. The co-location of such facilities should be encouraged wherever possible, together with the co-location of related waste management industries that are capable of utilising each other’s waste. This would cater for a number of mutually beneficial industries and processes, which together could create an integrated centre for waste management. This approach would also result in reduced transportation requirements.

4.28 Energy from Waste (EFW) plants can take many different sizes and forms. Large plants that generate heat, electricity or both through incineration should be located close to the source of waste and should generally be situated in industrial areas. It may soon become technologically and financially feasible for small EFW incineration plants or those involving anaerobic digestion to become more commonplace. Where the development of such smaller facilities is compatible with the National Waste Strategy and Area Waste Plan, their location outside their normal industrial settings or in rural areas should not be dismissed.

4.29 Civic amenity sites should be sited in convenient locations and in such a way that maintains the amenity of the surrounding area. Small-scale household recycling centres can be located in places where multipurpose trips are made possible. Traditionally this has been beside supermarkets. Provided the general amenity of an area is maintained however, there is no reason why such facilities cannot be located by shopping centres, places of employment, leisure and recreational facilities, petrol stations and new housing areas.

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4.30 Mineral, landfill, land raise and wind farm developments must conform to a sequential exploration of tiered planning designations. These are outlined in Table 5 and comprise international, national, regional and local designations and other (preferred) areas where development should be directed in the first instance. This hierarchical approach to directing development is supported by a number of NPPG’s, particularly NPPG 14 on "Natural Heritage". A number of habitats and features that are not necessarily recognised designations are also included to provide further clarity and direction for development. These include coastal systems, river beds, Strategic Reserve Land (long term development land within the Aberdeen Green Belt), buffer zones and pipeline wayleave routes.

4.31 It should be noted that some designations appear in different tiers. This is because mineral, landfill, land raise and wind farm development will have differing impacts on habitats and features. Thus, prime agricultural land for instance is in a lower tier for wind farms (where the land take is relatively low) than for the others, whereas Green Belt is in a higher tier for wind farms due to their possible landscape impact. Where proposals for new pipelines are involved, or where pipeline wayleaves are potentially affected by proposals, developers will need to carry out a full hazard and risk evaluation and environmental impact in connection with their proposals.

4.32 The tiered approach should be used as a basis for deciding planning applications for minerals, landfill, land raise and wind farm proposals. These should be located in Tier 4 areas in the first instance, subject to other local plan policies. Parts of Aberdeen Green Belt, which is in Tier 3, may be suitable for landfill and land raise proposals, provided they meet various objectives (including the National Waste Strategy and Area Waste Plan). Proposals should generally avoid Tier 1 and 2 areas.

Note: The various designations in this table are defined in the Report of Survey or its Addendum. Further information is available in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Councils’ planning offices.

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Green Belt

4.33 A Green Belt policy has been applied around Aberdeen for many years. Its objectives are:

4.34 The Green Belt has been successful in preventing unnecessary sprawl and has assisted the progressive regeneration of brownfield sites in Aberdeen and this has created public confidence in its effectiveness. Green Belt policy remains an important component of the strategy focussing development into settlements and encouraging the redevelopment of brownfield sites and thus supporting the main elements particularly promoting, protecting and enhancing the natural environment and reducing the need to travel.

4.35 Scottish Office Circular 24/1985 on "Development in the Countryside and Green Belts" states that land within Green Belts must be critically assessed as part of any development plan review. It states that the stability and endurance of Green Belt can be achieved only where a balance between containment and growth of urban development can be sustained on a long-term basis and in terms of this plan it must support the principles of sustainable development and travel reduction. Therefore in addition to meeting the land requirements of this plan, any review of Green Belt should determine whether land is still essential to meet the aims of the policy or whether it might contribute to the longer term supply of development land (Strategic Reserve). Such an assessment will also serve to relieve pressure on more sensitive Green Belt areas and on valuable urban open space.

4.36 The general extent of the Green Belt remains unchanged. However, adjustments are necessary to allow for other plan policies to be accommodated such as park and ride sites and the western peripheral route. Additionally, local plans should identify land that can accommodate the increasing demand for appropriate indoor and outdoor sports facilities and so relieve pressure upon urban open space. Provision should also be made for the area’s informal recreational requirements – not only for the lifetime of the plan but for the longer term. Therefore, local plans should confirm the concept of linked recreation areas including linkages into the urban areas. Such corridors require protection from development and will require initiatives such as the provision and enhancement of pathways and cycle routes. Finally, long term development land for possible developments beyond the lifetime of the plan (Strategic Reserve Land) should be identified and safeguarded. Taken as a whole, this assessment will reduce the need for further boundary reviews and increase confidence in the role of the policy.

4.37 In applying the above policy, local plans will require to resolve the following:

4.38 National guidance sets strict limits on the type of development that can be permitted in Green Belt and this will be endorsed through local plans to take account of strong development demands around Aberdeen.

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4.39 The coast is one of the North East’s foremost attractions in terms of its wildlife and landscape value, its attraction for tourists and residents and its association with marine-based industries such as fishing and oil. It is also hugely varied physically and demands careful management. Although planning policies have always sought to protect the coastal zone, development and visitor pressures continue. Government advice in NPPG 13 recognises the importance and variety of Scotland’s coast and sets out general principles for its protection and management. It recommends that the coast is divided into three areas; developed, undeveloped and remote. Detailed advice on coastal planning is given in PAN 53 "Classifying the Coast for Planning Purposes". Most of the coastline in the North East is classified as "undeveloped". The exceptions include Aberdeen, St Fergus and the Aberdeenshire coastal settlements with a population greater than 2000 which are classified as ‘developed’. There are no areas of remote coast in the structure plan area.

4.40 Where appropriate, local authorities and other agencies should work together to: