Newtonhill & District Village Association

Morning all,
just want to emphasise the importance of the Public Meeting being held by the Community Council on Sunday 7th June at the Bettridge Centre at 2pm :-)).
The Planning for Real (PfR) meeting was fortuitously timed to be able to include some of the proposal plans for areas to be zoned for housing and employment in the next Local Development Plan (LDP). This gave many people an opportunity to drop-in for a first look at some of these and to make comments which will go forward as a PfR submission (the details of this will be publicly available shortly).
More detailed information on the LDP process is now available with the release of the Main Issues Report and the official consultation period has begun with public meetings scheduled across Aberdeenshire. Newtonhill, Muchalls and Cammachmore Community Council is holding a more formal public meeting this Sunday at 2pm at the Bettridge Centre. There will be copies of the Main Issues Report available to look through, more detailed maps and plans of the various proposals and information as to how to make formal representation to the Council. The Community Council itself will be making a representation to Aberdeenshire Council and as such, needs to ensure this represents the views of the community as a whole :-).
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The important thing to remember is that essentially any of the areas proposed for the LDP could indeed be approved by the Council. Although the Main Issues Report highlights areas that Council planners have suggested as preferred options, this does not mean that they are the areas which will ultimately be approved - but they may be! Everything is still up for discussion. It may be worth noting that the proposal for a new settlement at Elsick is seen as a perfectly viable alternative option to the one at Banchory Leggart and therefore your views and suggestions on this proposal need to be made whether they are in support or not. There are smaller proposals around the area and a larger area to the north which could eventually join up Newtonhill and Cammachmore - we need to know what you think!!
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Don't sit back and think that some of these will have no direct impact on you - if you have young children and the Elsick development is approved then your children would almost certainly go to an Academy proposed there to be within walking distance of Newtonhill :-)).
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This is an important time for us to make our views known as the decisions made in the near future are the ones which will shape our communities over the next 15 years - housing will HAVE to go somewhere and saying an outright 'No' isn't an option :-)

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(who is telling you all this, but still can't make up my own mind as to what options I prefer!!!)