A new management plan for Orkney's four urban conservation areas is now available in draft form for public feedback.

The consultation period, which will run for eight weeks, will close on August 29, 2013.

The draft plan is the first produced by Orkney Islands Council (OIC) that covers all four of the regions urban conservation areas in Kirkwall, Stromness, St Margaret's Hope and Balfour Village.

Comments are being invited on the document, which will then be revised in response to the feedback made during the consultation period, before being submitted to Councillors for approval.

Once approved, the plan will be a key consideration when planning applications in the conservation areas are determined.


Councillor James Stockan, Chair of OIC's Development and Infrastructure Committee said: "We're keen to preserve the special character of our conservation areas.

"We're also keen to promote regeneration – the impact of the Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative shows how these two important aims can be fulfilled in tandem with each other.

"As we develop our detailed funding bid for a THI in Kirkwall, we need to have an up-to-date urban conservation management plan in place – and it makes sense for this to cover all four areas where conservation is considered as part of the planning process."

Paper copies of the Urban Conservation Areas Management Plan can be viewed at OIC customer services in Kirkwall and Stromness and at the libraries in the two towns.

For Kirkwall, £1.62m has been earmarked by the Heritage Lottery Fund for a Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI). More detailed plans for the funding will be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund in early 2014 and, if the submission is approved at this stage, the scheme would start in the summer of 2014 and run for five years until 2019.

The funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund is in addition to the £1.2m secured from Historic Scotland for a Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS), which would be incorporated into the THI scheme and run under the project heading of Kirkwall THI.

The OIC would £600,000, to bring the entire fund to £3.425m.

(JP/CD)