Aberdeen City Council is launching public consultations on the potential release of land to provide more affordable and family homes in the city.

The 10-week consultation period will focus on eight sites earmarked in the Aberdeen Local Plan, as modified, for new homes in the period 2006-2010.

Feedback will be the subject of a report to city councillors. They will then vote on whether to allow residential development on the sites in principle, subject to the consideration of detailed matters arising during the planning process.

The recommendation from planning officials to the policy and strategy committee meeting to consult publicly on the release of the land has been triggered by current planning policies which technically stand in the way of the release.


Both the local plan and regional structure plan, North East Scotland Together (NEST), state that permission for new residential development on the land identified for the period 2006-2010 will not be granted until a review of the current structure plan has been carried out.

But planning officers are pointing out that no review has taken place and that a new structure plan is unlikely to be approved by Scottish Ministers until the end of 2009. They argued in their report to committee members that the 2006-2010 period is already halfway over and that there is an urgent need for more affordable and family homes in Aberdeen.

Committee members voted in favour of the recommendation from planners that draft Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) should go out for 10 weeks of public consultation.

The draft SPG proposes the release of eight sites allocated for 2006-2010 - so that planning applications to build homes can be lodged and considered for approval by the City Council's planning committee, subject to their suitability in terms of design, siting and mixture of house types.

The sites are Greenferns, Northfield, 120 units; Old Skene Road, Kingswells, 25; Hazledene, Countesswells, 150; Friarsfield and Morkeu, Cults, 280; Earlswells House, Bieldside, 10; Loirsbank Road, Cults, 10; Leggart Terrace, 50 and Stationfields, Cove, 150.

(GK/JM)