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  3. Development Planning & Environment (DP&E)
  4. Archived Development Plan information
  5. Preparation of the West Lothian Local Development Plan 2018 (LDP 1)
  6. LDP 'Proposed Plan' Post-Examination Modifications

LDP 'Proposed Plan' Post-Examination Modifications

Recommendations made in the Report of Examination are essentially binding on planning authorities and meant that the council could only depart from the recommendations in the very specific defined circumstances set out in Regulations.

There are four grounds for 'lawfully departing' from the Reporters recommended modifications set out in Regulation 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Grounds for Declining to Follow Recommendations) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and Section 19(11) of the Act (opens new window): 

  1. If the modification would have the effect of making the Local Development Plan inconsistent with the National Planning Framework or with the SDP;
  2. If the modification was incompatible with Conservation and Natural Habitat Regulations;
  3. If the modification was incompatible with an environmental assessment carried out on the Plan; and
  4. If the modification was based on conclusions that could not reasonably have been reached by the Reporter based on the evidence before him or her at the Examination.

In the event, and at a meeting of the Council Executive on 22 March 2018, the council resolved to accept all of the modifications recommended in the Report of Examination, and, furthermore, agreed to adopt the Local Development Plan (as modified).