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PLANNING Bulletin: Issue No 22 December 2003
Your Place, Your Plan
March 2003 saw the publication of Your Place, Your Plan: a White Paper on public involvement in planning. The White Paper leads on from the 2001 consultation paper Getting Involved in Planning and associated research. It contains a number of measures designed to strengthen and enhance public involvement at all stages of the planning process.
The range of measures includes:
- giving planning authorities responsibility for carrying out neighbourhood notification;
- improving arrangements for advertising planning proposals;
- requiring planning authorities to give reasons for all planning decisions;
- reducing the scope for planning authorities to depart from the recommendations of Reporters when considering the reports of local plan inquiries;
- building up existing mechanisms for public involvement, e.g. support for Planning Aid for Scotland.
Some of the measures require legislative change whilst others can be progressed by changes in guidance. We are bringing forward the measures as time and resources permit. For those measures which require further detailed consideration, we will engage with stakeholders as these measures are taken forward.
We have made progress in implementing the proposals. In July, Mary Mulligan, Deputy Minister for Communities, announced 50,000 funding for 2003-4 for Planning Aid for Scotland thus helping them engage further with Ministers' public involvement agenda. In addition, in partnership with the Scottish Civic Forum, the first National Consultative Group meeting is to be held in early 2004.
Your Place, Your Plan noted that there was a call to introduce a third party right of appeal into the planning system. Recognising this is a complex issue, it contained a commitment to consult during 2003 on new rights of appeal in planning cases. The Partnership Agreement further defined the subject of the consultation paper by saying that "we will consult on new rights of appeal in planning cases where the local authority has an interest, where the application is contrary to the local plan, when planning officers have recommended rejection or where an Environmental Impact Assessment is needed".
A stakeholder group has been guiding the preparation of a consultation paper which is to be published in 2004.
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