9927: ORKNEY: PREPARATION OF RURAL HOUSING POLICY
This 1999 nomination by Orkney Islands Council relates to innovation in policymaking in the preparation of Orkney's "Housing in the Countryside" policy. Two particular aspects of the policy preparation are worth highlighting: the key role played by the community councils in the preparation of the policy, and the use of the private sector to assist in the plan making process. Housing in the countryside has always been a contentious subject in Orkney and the Council has faced many difficulties in trying to achieve a workable policy. Over the years policies have been subject to a number of revisions. The Council's policy in the 1993 Orkney Structure Plan allowed extensive greenfield housing opportunities in the countryside through the identification of around 100 areas where development of scattered low density housing would be permitted. Over recent years this very relaxed policy has resulted in an explosion in the numbers of new houses built in the open countryside of Orkney, whilst only small amounts of development have taken place in the villages and rural settlements. The need to promote a more sustainable settlement pattern and a concern over the long-term landscape impact of poorly sited houses prompted the Council to rethink its policy. The Council decided that opportunities for greenfield rural housing development should be restricted to selected areas where the landscape and infrastructure was better able to cope with new development. The rural settlements and public transport corridors were seen as the optimal locations for new rural housing development to take place. The extensive "Scattered Low Density Housing Areas" were therefore to be replaced by a much smaller number of local "housing clusters" to be identified locally by the communities affected. Community councils have traditionally had a powerful voice in Orkney and the Council has always placed them at the heart of its approach to community participation in the planning of services. At a seminar held by the Council in May 1998 it was agreed that the community councils would play the key role in identifying local housing clusters within a framework set by the Council. All the community councils on Mainland Orkney were then invited to a further seminar held in October 1998, at which they were presented with details of the guiding principles for identifying possible housing clusters in their area (impacts on landscape; access to services; land availability etc). In total 10 community councils were involved in the process. As well as identifying the housing clusters the community councils were also asked to comment on other aspects of the "Housing In the Countryside" policies, e.g. siting and design. The exercise identified 48 potential "housing clusters" throughout the mainland of Orkney. These clusters represented a substantial reduction in area and number compared with the previous scattered low-density housing areas. It was recognised at an early stage that the task of involving the community councils would be resource intensive in terms of Forward Planning staff being required to attend at least two and possibly more meetings of each community council in order to assist the councils to identify sites. Given that the section at the time consisted of only one member of staff, it was decided to appoint a firm of planning consultants to complete the exercise. This involved meetings with the community councils to explain why the policy was being revised, remind them of the general criteria for identifying sites, and assist with the mapping of site boundaries. The culmination of the exercise with the community councils and planning consultants resulted in the Council being presented with a detailed report identifying 48 potential local housing clusters. Despite the fact that the community councils had been given criteria for identifying sites there still remained inconsistencies in the approaches undertaken e.g. the size of cluster areas. Also, the exercise had not involved "expert" input in terms of landscape and water, drainage and roads services. All the identified areas were therefore assessed in detail by the Islands Council with the help of the North of Scotland Water Authority and Scottish Natural Heritage. This resulted in some clusters being excluded because of particular infrastructure constraints, distance from public transport routes or because of impact on the landscape. The community councils were fully informed of assessments, with staff from the Planning Department attending meetings of all community councils to explain the results and recommendations. As a result the Draft Local Plan now includes a list of 37 local "housing clusters" all of which have been identified by the community councils. The involvement of the community councils in the development of the rural housing policy and the identification of sites should ensure that when the draft Local Plan is published those aspects of the plan will be more generally accepted. It should therefore be less controversial than might otherwise be the case, had there not been any community involvement. In these days through the Best Value process, Council are required to look at involving communities more in the plan making process, and alternative approaches to delivering the service. The Orkney exercise provides a good example of dealing with both issues. In terms of public involvement, there is surely no better example than actually directly involving the communities in choosing their own housing sites for inclusion in the Local Plan. The use of private consultants, in Orkney's case forced on the authority due to lack of in-house resources, shows how aspects of the plan making process can be contracted out to ensure the momentum of a particular project is maintained.
The judges decided to conjoin this nomination with related 1999 Commendation in that category.