NICE is delighted to announce that- IT IS HAPPENING AT LAST !
All systems are go for the first ‘community led’ Local Place Plan to be developed for the Nairn and Nairnshire area in 2023.
Please complete our initial Community Survey online here (click on link below)
https://forms.gle/542MPc6SdhVbpFN8A
or look out for paper copies of the survey in public buildings and shops around Nairn over summer. You can return your completed paper form to post boxes at Nairn Library and Community and Arts Centre . Just ask at the counter!
You can also download a copy of this survey below to print off and share with your friends, family and neighbours to fill in.
Local Place Plan volunteers from NICE , community councils and local business groups will be able to help you fill in the survey too. Look out for us at the Local Place Plan stall at Nairn Show 29 July and on the 19 August come and talk to us at the Wallace Bandstand at the Nairn Games and tell us what your priorities are for the future of the Nairn area.
A Local Place Plan gives the people who live here and use local services, the power to decide what the future priorities should be for development and use of land and buildings in their local area.
NICE, Nairn‘s Community Development Trust (with more than 600 local members across Nairnshire) is taking the lead on this community led process with two local Community Councils (Nairn River and Nairn West and Suburban) and Nairn BID business member organisation already on board.
This ‘steering group’ will be reaching out to everyone who lives and works in the local area to have a say in what goes into Nairnshire’s first ever community led Local Place Plan.
Our community engagement stands at the Nairn Show on 29th July and Nairn Games 19th August will start this important community led conversation to inform the future of Nairn and its surrounding area as a ‘county town’ .
Email LPP@nicenairn.org.uk if you’d like to help us with this or just share your thoughts on what Nairn needs. If you aren’t yet a NICE member and live in Nairnshire you can join for free via the Join NICE link on our Home page
WHAT IS A LOCAL PLACE PLAN?
Local Place Plans ( LPPs) are part of the Scottish Government’s new ‘National Planning Framework’ (known as NPF4) which replaced previous planning guidelines in February 2023 after many years of preparation.
This promises to ‘improve people’s lives by making sustainable, liveable and productive places’ and represents a significant shift away from top down, ‘developer led’ planning of how land and buildings are used, towards more ‘community driven’ plans.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND A LOCAL PLACE PLAN?
A Local Development Plan is produced by the local authority planning team, after consultation with the public, and sets out how places will change in the future.
A Local Place Plan is led and owned by the people who live in the area, but once adopted is recognised as a key document to be reflected in the Local Development Plan , and its content will be in future ‘material considerations’ in Planning decisions for the area.
The last time a separate ‘Nairnshire Plan’ was published by Highland Council was in 2001.. Since then Nairn has become part of the Inner Moray Firth ‘Local Development Plan’ and the Highland Wide Local Development Plan which are produced by Highland Council for a 10 year period.
A community led Local Place Plan will enable local residents to make sure that their priorities and needs are properly reflected in the next Highland wide Local Development Plan due out in 2027 which maps out future development of land for housing and business use.
In line with new SPF4 planning guidelines for local authorities, Highland Council as well as taking account of what local communities have laid out in their Local Place Plans, must prioritise town centre regeneration over out of town development, and take an ‘infrastructure* first’ approach to all new developments. They must also protect the local natural environment and support the transition towards zero carbon living.
‘Infrastructure’ means anything that physically supports day to day living of residents or operation of businesses in an area, such as roads, public transport, pedestrian and active travel routes, energy and water supplies, sewerage, drainage and flood defences and community facilities for education, shopping, health and recreation.
HOW WILL A LOCAL PLACE PLAN BE PREPARED? WHO WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN?
To produce Nairn’s Local Place Plan, NICE will have volunteer support from local community and business groups, and a paid local coordinator who will be recruited soon.
NICE have applied to the Community Regeneration Fund to help fund a programme of intensive community engagement this autumn to make sure that as many local people as possible have their say in this Plan.
Professional support from a Planning Aid Scotland consultant, and a place planning officer has also been offered by Highland Council
Between now and Xmas 2023 with your help the Nairn LPP team will be getting out and about in Nairnshire running a series of events and meetings wherever people want them, to talk with local people of all ages, community groups and businesses to find out what they want for this place. By early 2024 together we will pull together and agree with the local community a set of achievable priority actions, as a Local Place Plan for Nairn and its surrounding area.
WHY HAVE A LOCAL PLACE PLAN ? HOW WILL IT HELP NAIRN and NAIRNSHIRE?
We will use this Local Place Plan to help the local community to work together with public and private agencies to ‘deliver’ for Nairn from 2024.
Under the new ‘planning framework’, whatever Nairn residents choose to prioritise for the future of our area in our community led Local Place Plan in 2024 must be reflected in the next Highland wide Local Development Plan which Highland Council will publish in 2027
Having a Local Place Plan will help Nairnshire projects, groups and businesses access more public funding and private investment in future by:
1/making sure that local funding bids and proposals for new developments are a good fit with what the local community wants.
2/demonstrating that local communities, businesses and public sector are working together effectively to help the area thrive.
3/giving local communities a clear voice and influence to promote our area nationally and internationally as a great place to live, visit and invest
YOUR COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU!
Local people know what this place needs and are best placed to advise on local plans.
We want everyone who lives here to get a say to make sure future developments in and around Nairn get it right for all those who live, work and visit here.
COMING SOON…….. LOTS OF WAYS TO TELL US WHAT YOU WANT IN THIS PLAN!
We will be preparing a series of public events, over the summer and autumn for you to come along to in person to contribute your views on what should be in this plan for Nairn .
Look out on the NICE website, on local notice boards, the Inverness Courier ’Nairnshire’ edition and on social media for our programme of public engagement events and activities in 2023 and early 2024 .
Come and talk to us about your ideas for the Local Place Plan at our community stand at Nairn Show and at Nairn Games at the Wallace Bandstand. Please complete our initial Community Survey https://forms.gle/542MPc6SdhVbpFN8A
We will be posting more questions on our webpages and other social media for you to think about and email your views back to us about what you think Nairn needs in future.
We will also give you the chance to put your ideas on paper if you prefer ( email us on LPP@nicenairn.org.uk with anything you want to tell us about your priorities for the future of this area.) We plan to post out information to all Nairnshire households as soon as we have our autumn events programme ready
We hope you will join in this important conversation in whatever way you can and share your views on how you’d like to see Nairn develop in the future for the benefit of all.
CAN WE COME TO YOU?
We will offer lots of ways to engage with this process.
You don’t have to have a computer, use the internet or a smartphone or come out to public meetings.
We will reach out to wherever you are eg schools, care homes, rural areas, to make sure that everyone gets a say.
Let us know if you’d like us to come to you or your group as we build our plans to engage with people in the local area over the coming months.
You can email LPP@nicenairn.org.uk and let us know what you need.
Help us make sure that a Local Place Plan for this area fully reflects what all the people who live here and use Nairn’s amenities want.
We know that everyone will not share the same views but we will try to gather together the diverse needs and wants of the people who live in Nairn and Nairnshire before we ask you to help us focus in on common priorities, proposals for action, and doable projects which will become a Local Place Plan
MAIN ‘THEMES’ FOR NAIRN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN? YOU TELL US…..
The main headings and priority themes for this ‘community driven’ Local Place Plan will be defined by you
Other places in Highland who have developed their own community led Local Place Plans like the Black Isle, and Stratherrick and Foyers have covered themes such as Housing, Getting Around, Community Amenities, Environment and Nature, Jobs and Businesses, Heritage and Tourism
Let us know the topics which you think are a particular priority for a locally led plan concerning the future use of land and buildings in the Nairn area.
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
If you’d like to help us as a volunteer, offer a personal view or ask a question – please drop us a line on LPP@nicenairn.org.uk.
This important conversation has started and we would love to hear from you.