Scotland to reform aquaculture planning to boost growth

Scotland's Minister for the Environment and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth are looking to improve the planning service for aquaculture so that it does not impede growth.

Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham said that an aquaculture planning taskforce was been established to prepare a document to carry the planning service forward.

The document released on Tuesday (March 9) sets out high level commitments from public bodies and others, including from the industry and specific actions and targets. The taskforce will remain in place to monitor and report on the delivery of the overall objective.

The document sets out what local Scottish authorities and the aquaculture industry can do together to improve the current planning system.

The main benefits through improving efficiency in the planning system, as it relates to aquaculture, will be:

• Up to date development plans that provide the industry and communities with greater certainty; 
   
• Improved planning applications and Environmental Statements that will help to speed up response times from the public sector; 
   
• A more streamlined statutory consultation process; 
   
• Greater understanding and co-operation across the public and private sector; 
   
• Partnerships between stakeholders to deliver better developments in the right places - and more efficiently;
    
• Improvements in the openness and transparency of the process.