Isn't it amazing that after at least 5 years of being involved in local land use planning issues, carefully studying planning matters and seeking advice from many sources, the 'basics' of the planning system still seem to elude me.
Recent events have made me question the whole reason for the existence of planning as a discipline and I sought advice from a Planning Aid Scotland volunteer. I asked 2 basic questions, the first of which was:
Recent events have made me question the whole reason for the existence of planning as a discipline and I sought advice from a Planning Aid Scotland volunteer. I asked 2 basic questions, the first of which was:
Why is it specified that there should be a consultation on and an examination of a Proposed Plan? (What purpose do these exercises fulfill in terms of the planning process?)
The answer given was:
"...consultation on an emerging, or the proposed plan, allows for key stakeholders (members of the public, neighbouring councils, businesses (e.g. house builders), and statutory bodies (e.g. Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency)) to comment on the policies contained within the proposed plan. Different stakeholders will each have different views as to how land use policy should be proposed within this plan. The comments received as a result of this consultation exercise will then be taken into account to finalise the proposed plan, which is then submitted to the Scottish Ministers. If there are still representations from stakeholders that have not been resolved, the proposed plan is then subject to examination (for all intents and purposes this is a planning inquiry). The examination will be undertaken by a Reporter, appointed by the Scottish Ministers, and the local authority have no role in determining who this Reporter will be. It is then the Reporter's responsibility to assess the outstanding representations on the Proposed Plan and ultimately report on how the representations should be taken into account (if appropriate), such as re-designating sites, policy areas etc."
The next question was:
The answer will follow in PART 2
The next question was:
If an LDP has 'emerged' as far as publication of the PP - but this PP still awaits consultation and examination - can the thought be entertained that once the PP is published then that is it and the rest of the development plan process is just a 'formality' with the likelihood of any significant alteration being made to the PP as a result of a representation being a remote possibility?
The answer will follow in PART 2
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