FW2040

FW2040 (official website: <www.highland.gov.uk/FW2040>; download: <Acrobat (PDF) file>) is the statutory Local Development Plan (LDP) covering the Fort William, Caol, and Corpach conurbations, part of Highland [Regional] Council's 'Westplan' initiative to create Local Development Plans in western Highland Scotland. Not to be confused with FW2027.

LDPs impose a degree of strategic coherence on local planning that would not otherwise exist, but they are in no way linked to funding sources and are therefore, of necessity, speculative rather than definitive. Highlighting this, Highland regional councillor Dennis Rixson (Caol & Mallaig) has referred to "an anomaly that runs through all the FW2040 documentation," explaining that:

"We may refer to a Masterplan, we are recommending it become a 'material consideration' but it is not, and never will be, a blueprint. Such is the 'siloed' approach of governmental development in Britain that I look at it as more of an assemblage of practical proposals - all in different stages of development - and visionary aspirations. Some of the latter may become the former but usually that will depend on some non-governmental body carrying them to fruition."