The Scottish Government’s marine aquaculture farm review programme

Transitional arrangements and Crown Estate aquaculture leases

The Town and Country Planning (Prescribed Date) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 came into force on 31 March 2010. This extended the period during which the transitional arrangements in respect of The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Order 2007 will apply to 31 March 2013.

This means that where consents or works licences have expired since 1 April 2007, or will expire before 31 March 2013, the site(s) can continue to operate with consented equipment up to 31 March 2013. This is unless a decision on planning permission has been made by Scottish ministers before then – that is, the consent has been reviewed or audited.

Where our lease has expired prior to the granting or refusal of planning permission , the lease will be tacitly relocated. In effect this means that in the absence of a termination notice, the lease will automatically be renewed for another twelve months. At the end of this period, again in the absence of a termination notice issued by ourselves, renewal for a further twelve months will apply, and so on until such time as the review or audit of the original consent has taken place and planning permission has either been granted or refused by the Scottish ministers.

Following review or audit, in the event of consent being granted, a new lease may be applied for. In the event of consent being refused, we will issue a termination notice to bring the tacitly relocated lease to an end at the next anniversary of the original expiry date.