Year 3, Week 39

Highland Visitor Levy, Highland Local Development Plan ...

Highland Visitor Levy

I mentioned the proposed Levy back in November and briefly at the start of January but the consultation on this continues. Visit Inverness/Loch Ness held a public forum at Eden Court in the middle of January which is now available to watch (warning: it’s just under two hours long).

The council is now running a series of engagement events throughout February at locations across Highland and they are coming to Nairn Library this Friday, 7th February from 10:30 to 12:30.

This will be an informal in-person drop-in opportunity to chat with Council staff on the proposed Scheme and ask questions about the proposal or the consultation process. Public access computers will also be available for you to fill in the online consultation document, if required.

I hope that if you have an interest in this you do respond to the consultation. I am looking forward to reading the results of that before we decide whether to go ahead and, if so, on what basis within what is allowed by the legislation.

Highland Local Development Plan

As the Local Place Plan process draws to a close the council is already moving on to the next stage, which is the Highland Local Development Plan.

This is set to be adopted by late 2027 and it will serve as the foundation for deciding planning applications and guiding future development and investment across the Highlands and things like the local place plans which have been, and are being, developed by communities across Highland will feed into that.

You can view the evidence they have gathered to date and comment on the Consultation Portal.

I’m sure any of you who were involved in the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan consultation, the Nairnshire Local Place Plan consultation, or the issues we’ve had with Delnies will cast a wry smile that “Infrastructure First” is a apparently a key point and that “infrastructure considerations [are] to be at the forefront of plan preparation”.