Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2018

7. Derelict Land: Levels, Location and Characteristics

7.1 This section focuses exclusively on derelict land - its levels over the past seven years and its location within Scotland. Derelict land is land which has been so damaged by development, that it is unsuitable for development for beneficial use without rehabilitation. The land must currently not be used for the purpose for which it is held or a use acceptable in the local plan. Land also qualifies as derelict if it has an un-remedied previous use which could constrain future development.

7.2 The total amount of derelict land has shown a net increase of 198 hectares (2%), from 8,846 hectares in 2012 to 9,044 hectares in 2018 (Table 6).

7.3 Excluding derelict mineral sites, the total amount of derelict land in Scotland has shown a net decrease of 14% (937 hectares) since 2012 (from 6,917 hectares in 2012 to 5,980 hectares in 2018).

7.4 The change in the recorded amount of derelict land from 2012 to 2018 varies by authority. Some councils have seen large percentage decreases - Renfrewshire showing the largest percentage decrease, down 80%. Others have seen large increases in levels of derelict land - East Ayrshire has more than six times the amount of derelict land in 2018 compared to 2012. This large increase is due to the addition of 2,217 hectares of former surface coal mines in 2014 (see Section 5).

7.5 The large percentage changes for some authorities, for example Na h-Eileanan Siar, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire and Moray, are due the small base of recorded land in 2012.

7.6 The five councils recording the largest amount of derelict land in 2018 are East Ayrshire (1,736 ha), Highland (1,276 ha), North Lanarkshire (1,189 ha), North Ayrshire (1,098 ha) and Fife (598 ha). Together these councils account for almost two thirds (65%) of all derelict land recorded in 2018.

7.7 The notable increase in derelict land in Angus from 2017 to 2018 was mainly due to remapping an area of disused railways using aerial photography which resulted in a change to the area recorded for a single site - increasing from 30 to 166 hectares.

7.8 The notable decrease in derelict land in East Ayrshire from 2017 to 2018 was mainly due to a number of former surface coal mine sites being classed as naturalised on completion of their restoration programme.

7.9 The largest derelict sites recorded in the 2018 survey include:

• Fearn and Fendom Airfields and the Port of Arderseir in Highland (386, 295 and 255 hectares)

• A former explosives factory in Ardeer, North Ayrshire (332 hectares)

• A former opencast coal site in Muirkirk, East Ayrshire (246 hectares)

7.10 The largest site recorded as derelict for the first time during this survey was a housing site in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire (50 hectares).

Table 6 - Total Derelict Land by Planning Authority^1,2,3

Local Authority	Total Derelict land Area (ha)							% Change 2012-20185
	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Aberdeen City	27	28	25	21	16	13	13	-53%
Aberdeenshire	35	35	34	34	38	45	43	24%
Angus	124	124	126	112	100	94	229	84%
Argyll and Bute4	8	9	8	37	37	37	38	361%
Clackmannanshire	11	11	15	12	54	48	46	312%
Dumfries and Galloway	483	483	482	455	457	301	301	-38%
Dundee City	14	14	18	16	16	14	17	16%
East Ayrshire	277	285	2,493	2,480	2,386	2,324	1,736	527%
East Dunbartonshire	57	56	52	61	67	69	43	-25%
East Lothian	62	62	61	76	76	79	78	26%
East Renfrewshire	39	39	36	36	36	34	34	-14%
City of Edinburgh	114	112	111	96	96	91	88	-22%
Falkirk	79	89	101	108	163	210	208	162%
Fife	815	806	813	599	602	601	598	-27%
Glasgow City	657	644	638	641	640	621	580	-12%
Highland6	1,373	1,302	1,299	1,276	1,276	1,276	1,276	-7%
Inverclyde	24	26	26	28	82	81	83	249%
Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park4	15	25	25	25	25	25	6	-57%
Midlothian	254	253	204	188	181	107	107	-58%
Moray	3	9	9	8	7	7	7	164%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	1	1	1	1	1	1	*	-89%
North Ayrshire	1,124	1,125	1,137	1,129	1,127	1,147	1,098	-2%
North Lanarkshire	1,156	1,145	1,139	1,116	1,083	1,138	1,189	3%
Orkney Islands	40	39	39	39	39	39	32	-21%
Perth and Kinross4	40	38	28	28	23	16	17	-58%
Renfrewshire	795	784	761	748	708	173	160	-80%
Scottish Borders	58	54	49	49	49	46	45	-22%
Shetland Islands	7	7	5	5	5	6	6	-2%
South Ayrshire	71	70	70	75	81	81	96	35%
South Lanarkshire	350	356	345	340	296	306	296	-16%
Stirling4	137	131	131	131	117	117	117	-15%
West Dunbartonshire4	172	168	168	167	157	149	152	-12%
West Lothian6	421	421	417	346	346	346	304	-28%
Scotland	8,846	8,756	10,864	10,481	10,385	9,640	9,044	2%

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. See Annex D for details of council participation in different years.

3. During 2018, historical data for the years 2012-2017 were updated as a result of improved information. This included removing sites that should not have been included in previous years, adding sites that should have been included earlier and making any required changes to site size. Further information on this process is available in the Annex along with un-amended historical data for the survey years of 1996-2011.

4. From 2011 Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park took responsibility for surveying vacant and derelict land within the park boundaries. These sites are no longer recorded in Argyll and Bute, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire local authority boundaries, and are separately identifiable as Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park from 2011. Prior to 2011 these sites were classified within the relevant local authority boundary.

5. Previous SVDLS bulletins have used different base years for percentage change and so these percentages should not be compared with those in previous bulletins.

6. Highland has not updated their survey since 2015 so their 2018 figures have been carried over from 2015.

7.11 Just over three quarters of all Scotland’s derelict sites are found within a settlement; the remaining quarter is within the countryside (Table 7). While the majority of derelict sites are located within settlements a larger area of derelict land is found outside of settlements with 5,775 hectares of derelict land, 64% of the total area, in the countryside.

7.12 North Lanarkshire has the largest number of settlement-based derelict sites with 317 recorded in 2018 and the largest amount of derelict land recorded within settlements in 2018 (805 hectares). This accounts for almost a quarter of all settlement-based derelict land.

7.13 North Lanarkshire also has the largest number of countryside-based derelict sites with 86 (385 hectares) recorded in 2018. However, the largest area of derelict land in the countryside is in East Ayrshire (1,680 hectares) which accounts for almost 30% of all countryside-based derelict land. This is due mainly to a small number of very large derelict former surface coal mines in East Ayrshire.

7.14 The average size of a derelict site in Scotland is 4.7 hectares. The average size of a countryside site is 12.9 hectares, with the average size of a settlement-based derelict site notably smaller at 2.2 hectares.

7.15 Across Scotland as a whole 0.1% of all land is derelict. Glasgow City has the largest amount of derelict land in relation to the size of its administrative area (Chart 1). The figures for all councils can be found in Annex Table 3.

Chart 1 - Planning Authorities with the largest area of Derelict Land as a percentage of Local Authority administrative area

Table 7 - Location and average size of Derelict Sites by Planning Authority^1,2

Local Authority	In a Settlement					In the Countryside					All Derelict Land
	Area (ha)	% of LA's derelict land in settlements (by Area)	No of Sites	Average Site Size	% of Scottish derelict land in settlements (by Area)3	Area (ha)	% of LA's derelict land in the Countryside (by Area)	No of Sites	Average Site Size	% of Scottish derelict land in the Countryside (by Area)4	Area (ha)	No of Sites	Average Site Size
Aberdeen City	13	100	14	0.9	*	-	-	-	-	-	13	14	0.9
Aberdeenshire	30	69	28	1.1	1	13	31	2	6.7	*	43	30	1.4
Angus	19	8	10	1.9	1	211	92	16	13.2	4	229	26	8.8
Argyll and Bute5	9	23	8	1.1	*	29	77	3	9.8	1	38	11	3.5
Clackmannanshire	10	22	10	1.0	*	36	78	3	11.9	1	46	13	3.5
Dumfries and Galloway	78	26	38	2.0	2	224	74	8	28.0	4	301	46	6.5
Dundee City	17	100	18	0.9	1	-	-	-	-	-	17	18	0.9
East Ayrshire	56	3	36	1.6	2	1,680	97	44	38.2	29	1,736	80	21.7
East Dunbartonshire	15	34	3	4.8	*	28	66	7	4.0	*	43	10	4.3
East Lothian	22	28	9	2.4	1	56	72	19	3.0	1	78	28	2.8
East Renfrewshire	32	95	22	1.5	1	2	5	1	1.7	*	34	23	1.5
City of Edinburgh	87	98	23	3.8	3	2	2	1	1.9	*	88	24	3.7
Falkirk	151	73	34	4.4	5	57	27	14	4.0	1	208	48	4.3
Fife	219	37	107	2.1	7	378	63	55	6.9	7	598	162	3.7
Glasgow City	544	94	271	2.0	17	36	6	5	7.2	1	580	276	2.1
Highland6	174	14	75	2.3	5	1,102	86	28	39.4	19	1,276	103	12.4
Inverclyde	83	100	51	1.6	3	-	-	-	-	-	83	51	1.6
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park5	3	43	6	0.5	*	4	57	1	3.6	*	6	7	0.9
Midlothian	29	27	13	2.2	1	78	73	21	3.7	1	107	34	3.1
Moray	7	100	8	0.9	*	-	-	-	-	-	7	8	0.9
Na h-Eileanan Siar	*	100	1	0.2	*	-	-	-	-	-	*	1	0.2
North Ayrshire	330	30	83	4.0	10	768	70	34	22.6	13	1,098	117	9.4
North Lanarkshire	805	68	317	2.5	25	385	32	86	4.5	7	1,189	403	3.0
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	-	32	100	1	31.8	1	32	1	31.8
Perth and Kinross5	8	47	12	0.7	*	9	53	13	0.7	*	17	25	0.7
Renfrewshire	52	33	27	1.9	2	108	67	2	53.8	2	160	29	5.5
Scottish Borders	30	67	48	0.6	1	15	33	8	1.8	*	45	56	0.8
Shetland Islands	1	14	1	0.9	*	6	86	5	1.1	*	6	6	1.1
South Ayrshire	90	94	49	1.8	3	6	6	6	1.0	*	96	55	1.7
South Lanarkshire	134	45	85	1.6	4	161	55	26	6.2	3	296	111	2.7
Stirling5	5	4	3	1.7	*	112	96	9	12.4	2	117	12	9.7
West Dunbartonshire5	152	100	56	2.7	5	*	*	1	0.2	*	152	57	2.7
West Lothian6	66	22	15	4.4	2	238	78	29	8.2	4	304	44	6.9
Scotland	3,269	36	1,481	2.2	100	5,775	64	448	12.9	100	9,044	1,929	4.7

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. Settlements as defined by Local Authorities in their latest council approved local plans.

3. As a percentage of total derelict land within a settlement in Scotland.

4. As a percentage of total derelict land within the countryside in Scotland.

5. From 2011 Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park took responsibility for surveying vacant and derelict land within the park boundaries. These sites are no longer recorded in Argyll and Bute, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire local authority boundaries, and are separately identifiable as Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park from 2011. Prior to 2011 these sites were classified within the relevant local authority boundary.

6. Highland has not updated their survey since 2015 so their 2018 figures have been carried over from 2015.

7.16 Where derelict characteristics are recorded the most common characteristic in terms of the number of sites is the remains of buildings (Table 8), with 663 sites listed with this as a single characteristic. However, this only accounts for 10% of the total area of characterised derelict land. The largest area of characterised derelict land is listed as having a mixture of possible left over chemicals/substances and rubble, stone deposits and other material - 2,080 hectares (27% of total area) across 118 sites. A further 21% of the total area (1,579 hectares and 183 sites) is characterised by building remains and possible left over chemicals/substances. It should be noted that there is potential for overlap between these categories, so the results should be treated with some caution.

Table 8 - Derelict Land Characteristics¹

Derelict Characteristics	Derelict Land
	Area (ha)	% of Derelict Land with known characteristics (by Area)2	No. of Sites
Building remains	804	10	663
Possible left over chemicals/substances	911	12	245
Abandoned physical material (stone deposits, rubble etc)	542	7	168
Building remains and possible left over chemicals/substances	1,579	21	183
Building remains and abandoned physical material (stone deposits, rubble etc)	450	6	148
Possible left over chemicals/substances and rubble, stone deposits and other material	2,080	27	118
Building remains, possible left over chemicals/substances and abandoned physical material (stone deposits, rubble etc)	1,321	17	73
Total Derelict Land with known characteristics	7,686	100	1,598
Unknown2	1,358	-	331
Total Derelict Land	9,044		1,929

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. Unknown values are excluded from the calculation of percentages.