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GETTING INVOLVED IN PLANNING: ANALYSIS OF CONSULTATION RESPONSES
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
1.1 The Getting Involved in Planning Consultation Paper 1 was published on 16 th November 2001 by the Scottish Executive Development Department and issued to a wide range of interests. In addition to the full document, an 'easy read' version and a questionnaire were widely distributed. The latter 2 formats were designed to be clearer and more easily accessible to people with limited or no first-hand experience or knowledge of the planning system. All 3 formats were accessed from the Executive's planning website. The consultation exercise implemented a commitment given by the Planning Minister in November 2000, to review the arrangements for public involvement in planning. The Executive's views on the way forward were outlined in the document and responses were invited from stakeholders on 32 specific questions to which replies were requested by 31 st March 2002, a date subsequently extended to 26 th April.
1.2 The review of Public Involvement in Planning comprised 3 strands of consultation and research of which this present consultation exercise forms a part. The 2 related elements consisted of, first, an Omnibus Survey of just over 1000 adults across Scotland, carried out in March 2002, and designed to establish perceptions of the general public on planning and public involvement. The second element comprised a wider public research project, Getting Involved in Planning: Perceptions of the Wider Public, which sought, amongst other things, to: explore the perceptions of both 'involved' and 'non-involved' members of the public and identify mechanisms which support more effective involvement.
1.3 These 3 strands, continue a programme of recent consultations concerned with aspects of the planning system. In June 2001, the Review of Strategic Planning consultation exercise was launched and set out a number of radical proposals which would, if implemented, have a significant impact upon the opportunities for public involvement in the planning system. In November 2001, Designing Places: A Policy Statement for Scotland was issued by the Executive, and this stressed the need for early and effective involvement of community interests in the design process.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
1.4 The changes outlined in the consultation document cover a number of elements of the planning system and may result in changes to both primary and secondary legislation, as well as providing opportunities to update advice on best practice. Consequently, the main purpose of the exercise has been to analyse the comments received in order to provide guidance on the development of proposals for the way forward. This report facilitates these objectives by providing systematic analysis of the responses to the consultation questions and other related matters, and drawing conclusions about the key areas of consensus and disagreement, as well as identifying where there were more mixed views.
RESEARCH METHODS
1.5 All responses were returned to the Scottish Executive in 3 different formats: paper questionnaires (45%); letters or reports (29%) e-mails, and attachments (26%). Some were scanned while others had to be extracted manually.
1.6 A consultation database was created in Microsoft Excel which contained the original consultation list and a new respondee list together with linked text responses. This enabled statistical tables for each question to be created and also provided text for transfer to the Digest of Responses (a document detailing all responses to each of the questions for publication on the Scottish Executive Website). As data was entered into the tables, they formed the basis of periodic progress reports to the Executive. Scanned responses were analysed in terms of their views about the consultation document questions. Following this exercise, text (sometimes summarised to be more manageable) was transferred into the appropriate fields of the consultation database.
1.7 Three potential response fields were created for each question - "yes", "no" and "mixed". The latter category was used to cover a range of circumstances, and could include - not directly answering the question, having a mixed view on the subject or having some strong reservations while being supportive in principle. All but 6 of the questions in the consultation document could have been answered by a simple "yes" or "no", but few respondents took this approach and either set out the reasons for the view they were taking and/or qualified it in some way. It was usually possible to fairly readily assign a response to one of the three fixed categories, but on occasions this did require a judgement to be made. Consequently, the statistical tables in the report need to be treated with some caution, although they are considered to be sufficiently soundly based to be broadly indicative of the balance of views received.
1.8 There were 5 main elements to the analysis. First, general comments about the scope of the review and the planning system as a whole were captured and structured into main themes. Second, responses to the specific consultation questions were analysed by stakeholder groups, the main reasons for and against the proposal were summarised, key qualifications identified and alternative/additional suggestions for improvement set out. Third, comments on the resource implications of the proposed changes and other related matters were set out. Fourth, a range of matters not directly raised by the consultation document were, where possible, grouped into related areas of concern and set out in summary fashion. Finally, the key cross-cutting themes and conclusions were identified.
STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT
1.9 This chapter has set out the background to the project, its primary objectives and the research method. The remainder of the report deals with the following matters:
Chapter Two: The Consultation Exercise sets out the overall response, identifies the key stakeholder groups and presents a profile of their responses in general and for each question. Conclusions on the general effectiveness of the consultation exercise are also appended.
Chapter Three: General Involvement Issuescovers the extent of and satisfaction with contacts respondents have had on planning matters. Views on Local Planning Policy Forums are analysed along with discussion of the role of Community Councils in these matters.
Chapter Four: Involvement in Development Planning systematically analyses the response to Questions 2 - 5 in the consultation document. A standard format is adopted which begins with a statistical profile of the responses, identifies common themes relating to the opinions expressed and highlights any alternative or variant options which may have been proposed.
Chapter Five: Involvement in Development Control systematically analyses the response to Questions 6 - 29 in the consultation document. A similar format and approach to that adopted in Chapter Four is repeated here in relation to development control issues. Related matters, not set out in the consultation document are also considered here.
Chapter Six: National Co-ordination covers the three questions (Q30-32) dealing with working groups and Helplines.
Chapter Seven: Resource Implications. The consultation document recognised that the proposals will have financial implications and invited views on the matter. This chapter records the different stakeholder responses received, identifies common themes and draws broad conclusions.
Chapter Eight: Other Matters raised in the Responses covers observations made by respondents which do not directly relate to the consultation document questions but are relevant to the planning system in general. Responses have been grouped where possible into related categories.
Chapter Nine: Conclusions summarises the findings from the quantitative and qualitative analysis in respect of the key concerns of the consultation exercise. Key themes are identified and issues for further consideration.
Appendix 1: Consultation Questions attaches the consultation letter inviting responses to the consultation document and sets out the 32 specific questions on which observations were sought.
Appendix 2: List of Consultees and Respondents provides information on the groups and individuals who were invited and who responded to the consultation document.
Footnote
1. Getting Involved in Planning Consultation Paper. Scottish Executive Development Department. November 2001. A full list of the questions is set out in Appendix 1.
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