| THE STRATEGY: CONNECTING COMMUNITIES | ||||||||||||
| Core Strategic Land Use Objectives
Objective 1 To create a long-term sustainable framework of settlements in a hierarchy, which focuses major development on the main settlements in the North East. The roles of each type of settlement and area are set out in more detail in Table 1 and the Strategic Diagram (Figure 1). Objective 2 To integrate land use and transportation and ensure that development is well related to public transport, especially on the main communication corridors. Objective 3 To foster and promote economic diversity and competitiveness, create new economic development opportunities and develop the natural strengths and growth sectors of the business economy, all in accord with sustainable principles. Objective 4 To locate homes, jobs and services in scale with each other and with the role and function of each settlement. Objective 5 To protect, enhance and promote the natural, built and cultural heritage of the North East. Objective 6 To create a long-term framework for the communications network, giving preference to public and freight transport, cycling, walking and telecommunications. Locational Objectives Objective 7 To secure a choice of location for a viable supply and adequate variety of land for housing (including affordable housing), employment, services and open space, which:
Objective 8 To protect and enhance the vitality of town centres as preferred locations for retail, leisure, community and business functions. Objective 9 To confirm the function and role of Aberdeen's Green Belt. Objective 10 To protect the countryside from development other than what is needed for the rural economy and settlement strategy. Objective 11 To give special protection to international, national and locally designated sites of environmental importance, but also to foster the natural and built environment as a whole. |
1.37 The promotion, protection and enhancement of the natural, built and cultural environment is also a critical and integral element of the strategy, not least for its contribution to the attractiveness and prosperity of the area.
1.38 All aspects of the environment are important. However, the global issues of sustainability mean that we must recognise priorities even here, in favour of those resources which impact at global level and over the longest timescale. Thus the most precious environmental resources are air, water and climate, followed by soil and biodiversity, then cultural resources, and finally the visual landscape.
1.39 Good connections with the rest of Europe and the availability of transport in the North East, both for goods and people, affect our prosperity, our environment and ultimately the whole quality of our lives. A common thread throughout the structure plan is the contribution that transportation planning can make towards achieving sustainable development and a healthy economy.
1.40 In doing so, the plan provides for patterns of land use that reduce the need to travel and promote the use of environment-friendly forms of transport, such as walking, cycling, buses and rail. The strategy also seeks to encourage telecommunications and sustainable freight transportation, including the transfer of freight from road to rail. This in turn will contribute towards road safety and the general improvement of the environment.
1.41 In considering these issues the structure plan acknowledges that the transport needs of rural Aberdeenshire are different from those of the Aberdeenshire settlements or Aberdeen.
