MyEDC

    Technical Notes 2024, Issue 15 - Adoption of Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Antonine Wall) World Heritage Site Supplementary Guidance

    • Report by:

      Heather Holland, Executive Officer – Land Planning & Development

    • TN Number:

      015-24

    • Subject:

      Adoption of Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Antonine Wall) World Heritage Site Supplementary Guidance

    • Responsible Officer:

      Stewart McNally, Team Leader – Land Planning Policy

    • Publication:

      This Technical Note will be published on the Council’s website following circulation to Members. Its contents may be disclosed or shared outwith the Council.

    Section

    1. The Antonine Wall was designated as a World Heritage Site in July 2008, becoming an extension of the trans-national ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site’ which includes Hadrian’s Wall in England and the German Limes.
       
    2. Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Antonine Wall) World Heritage Site Supplementary Guidance (SG) was adopted in 2011 to provide detail to support the implementation of East Dunbartonshire Local Development Plan (LDP1) historic environment policy. Elected Members will be aware that the Land Planning Policy team has been undertaking work to update that guidance to reflect changes in Historic Environment Scotland (HES) policy and to otherwise produce a more up to date document that takes into account the latest information and stakeholder views with respect to the protection of the Wall. The updated SG would be adopted as part of the suite of guidance documents to support Local Development Plan 2 (LDP2) implementation. 
    3. Work to update the SG was undertaken as a ‘Protection Group’ in collaboration with those four other Planning Authorities within which the Antonine Wall is located, namely Falkirk Council, Glasgow City Council, North Lanarkshire Council and West Dunbartonshire Council.
    4. The draft SG included:
      • the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value, for which the site was inscribed;
      • the designation of a Buffer Zone to protect the important landscape setting of the Wall; and
      • guidance on the process for considering planning applications that may have an impact on the World Heritage Site, how any potential impacts as a result of development would be assessed, and how potential impacts could be mitigated.
    5. The updated draft SG was subject to public consultation during early 2022. Three representations were received, from the Scottish Government, NatureScot and HES. The recommendations set out in those representations have been addressed in the updated SG. 
       
    6. The Council response to the representations and the associated amendments to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire (FRE) Antonine Wall SG were agreed at PNCA committee on 7 June 2022 (Report Ref. PNCA/040/22/AL). It was also agreed that officers would be remitted to send the approved amended SG and the report of consultation to Scottish Ministers for consideration prior to formal adoption in connection with LDP2, and that officers could proceed with design work and publication of the adopted SG.
       
    7. Since the approval of the amended guidance numerous circumstances arose that made it necessary to make a number of further minor and factual amendments to the guidance that would be sent to Scottish Minsters to reflect legislative and other changes that have taken place since the draft SG published for consultation in early 2022.
       
    8. The draft SG as published for consultation and presented to PNCA made reference to Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 2014. This has now been superseded by the adoption of National Planning Framework (NPF4), which has a statutory footing and now forms part of the Development Plan. Further detail on the adoption of NPF4 can be seen in TN Number 020-23. The draft SG was therefore amended to reflect the adoption of NPF4 and the accompanying replacement of SPP.
       
    9. It had initially been intended that the SG would be adopted as a single, identical document by East Dunbartonshire Council and each of the aforementioned Planning Authorities. However, West Dunbartonshire Council determined not to proceed with the adoption of a new Local Development Plan, which the SG would have supported, and consequently will adopt the guidance as non-statutory guidance instead. For this reason, each Planning Authority has prepared Authority-specific guidance, with wording to link the guidance to whichever LDP may apply. For expediency, it was agreed by the Protection Group that separate draft SG would be submitted to Scottish Ministers for examination by each Authority at the same time. 
       
    10. A number of presentational changes have also been made to the draft SG. These primarily concerned the presentation of the guidance in order to provide it as an interactive and user-friendly StoryMap.
       
    11. In summary, the following minor amendments have been made to the draft SG:
      • changes to reflect replacement of SPP with NPF4;
      • changes as a result of each Planning Authority adopting the guidance separately as a consequence of its now non-statutory status in West Dunbartonshire; and
      • changes to presentation
    12. These are considered to be technical amendments which did not impact upon the approach hitherto set out in the guidance.
       
    13. The document was submitted to Scottish Ministers on 22 November 2023. The Council received a Direction Notification on 14 December 2023 advising that Scottish Ministers do not propose to issue a direction in relation to the document and that the Council is free to adopt the guidance. The notification letter is provided as an appendix to this Technical Note.
       
    14. As such the guidance has now been formally adopted by the Council. No further procedures must be undertaken, and the updated and reformatted guidance can be accessed on the Council’s website.