Public consultation on council’s local plan

Rutherglen band the Miss’s have landed another top gig.

The duo recently launched their new album Crash at the Celtic Connections festival.

And now they have been booked to perform at the Country2Country festival at the SEC Armadillo on Saturday, March 11.

The three day event features a host of top country talent, including Reba McEntire, Hunter Hayes and Brad Paisley.

The Miss’s will play the King Tut’s Acoustic Stage, which highlights local talent who play country and Americana.

Also playing on the Saturday are the Zac Brown Band, Marty Stuart, Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne. Councillors have approved a further period of public consultation on the proposed new South Lanarkshire Local Development Plan (SLLDP2).

Between March and May 2017 local communities will get the chance to view and comment on the Main Issues Report (MIR) – the first published document in the process of preparing the new plan.

Its contents have been informed by a review of the existing SLLDP, as well as a series of consultation events held between April and November 2016.

These included meetings with external stakeholders, members of the public, workshops with community councils and events involving young people and Seniors Together.

The process was outlined to members of South Lanarkshire’s planning committee, where Chair, Councillor Hugh Dunsmuir, explained:“The Main Issues Report is not a draft version of the new plan and no decisions will be made at this stage of the process. We are merely setting out options for dealing with the main issues it outlines and how they might be handled in the SLLDP2, identifying, for example, where it may be appropriate for the council to change or review policies.

“Essentially the main purpose of the MIR is to allow early comment from interested parties on how the council could address the key matters that have been identified through consultation.”

The current Local Development Plan and associated statutory supplementary guidance was adopted in June 2015 and has formed the basis of the council’s decisions relating to new development proposals throughout the area since.

Following committee approval this morning, the MIR will now be published and made available for public comment between March to May 2017.

Documents will be on the council’s website www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk and at libraries and QandAs.

It is anticipated that the final draft plan will be ready for approval and formal adoption by 2019.