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Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2003

Application form

This application form can either be completed by hand or electronically (pdf version) on the Planning homepage at www.scotland.gov.uk/planning . Please complete all four questions. The deadline is 12 September 2003. An acknowledgement letter will be sent to the person who has completed this form.

Please provide a name and contact details of the organisation responsible for this work. If partners were involved, identify the lead organisation, and then list the other partners/bodies who had a key role.

Name of key partners (if appropriate)

Please complete the form by providing a brief summary (in no more than the space provided) of the piece of work you have entered. You must also conclude, with a key reason, as to why you think this work merits an Award.

Please tick the key criteria which relate to this entry:

You must describe in your written submission (below) how the criteria which you have ticked relates to your project.

Description of project

This Development Advice Note, 'Protecting and Managing Trees' provides our developers with easy to read and clear advice, ensuring that trees are properly considered and cared for during the planning and construction phases of development. This is the first time that such advice has been pulled together into a single document for the development industry within the Stirling Council area.

We hope that this development advice note will encourage and foster 'partnership' working between developer, construction workers, planners and design professionals. This partnership working is essential so that developments can be designed in a sustainable way in respect of existing trees and new planting. Past experience has indicated that landscape schemes often prove to be unsustainable through general ignorance on soil conditions and the needs of existing and new trees, resulting in wasted money and poor environments. It is hoped that this DAN will change the way landscape issues are approached in design and on site, and generally achieve sustainable development for the benefit of existing and future communities.

The structure of this advice note is designed to take the reader in a logical progression through the stages in the development process, and these are:

• understanding the statutory framework,
• getting a survey, undertaking a feasibility study and the infonnation required for the various types of planning application
• detail design
• constmction, including information on how trees are damaged and what kind of protection is needed
• advice on how close trees and development should be to each other
• enforcement
• management and monitoring.

Appropriate photographs and diagrams have been used to reinforce the written information and make this leaflet easy to read and user friendly.

Lastly, a selection of useful references is given for further information.

Timescale (over which the project has developed)

The need for this supplementary planning guidance was highlighted by the Council's landscape architect, who was often brought in once problems on development sites had been identified, and was left attempting to resolve impossible situations. Its design and development was developed and finally printed over a penod of 18 months, and it supplements another advice note on Trees and the Law.

Context (the problem which had to be addressed)

Trees are often a focus for community interest, especially when 'threatened' by development. This advice note has been developed not only to provide professionals with relevant information, but also to reassure communities and promote, by management of existing and proposed landscape resources, a situation whereby trees, which give so much to our environment, can be retained and be managed in a sustainable way.

Sadly, the problems that can arise through inappropriate protection of mature trees are well understood and can be seen on countless sites after construction has been completed. Such problems often take several years to show, and as such are usually difficult and expensive to resolve.

This document is firmly based on years of professional knowledge and experience in designing and overseeing tree and shrub planting on construction sites. The DAN has been supplemented by advice from other professionals in the field and relevant British Standards and there was considerable consultation on its content.

As briefly touched on above, this advice note addresses aspects of the development process that are becoming an ever serious problem in planning, design and construction terms:

• The increasing demand for housing, site values and time pressures on development have meant that planning applications are often lacking in adequate site survey information, and once in the system there is relentless pressure to determine applications within a given time scale.
• Once on site, Contractors are working within strict time and financial constraints, and with machinery that is becoming larger and heavier in order to be more time efficient.
• When off site, problems may take several years to show, by which time it is almost impossible to find a mechanism to deal with them, and the environment at large suffers.

The net result of this is that there is an ever-increasing likelihood of damage to existing vegetation and in particular trees as well as soil structure. Frequently, even when there are conditions in place that should protect the landscape, these are accidentally or wilfully ignored due to time constraints and shortcuts.

Action taken

The purpose of this advice note is threefold:

• To explain to developers, designers, planning officers and others the requirements for ensuring that a sustainable design can be produced, which will enhance our environment in the longer term.
• To provide a clear framework indicating the information required to register a planning application, so that the impact of proposals submitted are clearly understandable and complete at the outset.
• To provide a mechanism by which, if things do go wrong, action can be taken to rectify it.

Results achieved

Copies of the Advice Note have been sent out to Developers, Architects, Housing Associations and Community Councils operating within the Council area. Direct results are difficult to measure, but the Council's planning officers have all received training on these issues and are better able to identify the information needed to allow a complete assessment of the scheme. Applications now include the required survey information, which should mean that proposals will be assessed quicker and the whole process will be much more efficient.

Conclusion - Why does this piece of work merit an Award?

This is a well-illustrated and clearly written document that lays out clearly the information required from developers at application stage. Its presentation is professional, its content well researched, and it develops the theme of supplementary planning guidance produced by Stirling which seek to inform the public and developer alike.

It pulls together years of experience and aims to provide proactive and constructive advice, to avoid many of the problems and difficulties that have been associated trees and development sites.

It also seeks to educate those in the construction industry on the conditions that aftect trees and soil adversely, and awareness of this can only improve workmanship on site. It also provides our enforcement and tree officer with policy guidelines with which monitor site works, and our planning officers with information to use at a pre-application stage.

We believe that this is the first time that such a document has been produced to support the planning application process, and we think that it deserves wider recognition.

Date

11 September 2003

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