« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
APPENDIX 1 PLANNING POLICY AND GUIDANCE BACKGROUND
A.1.1
National Planning Policy Guidance (
NPPG) 10: Planning & Waste Management
This policy guidance was published in 1996. It sets out the policy framework for facilitating a move away from waste "disposal" to sustainable waste management and so facilitates a move towards waste reduction in accordance with the "Waste Hierarchy" of Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - Dispose. More specifically, it required development plans to include policies which would enable the provision of suitable waste disposal sites/installations and supply the land necessary for waste treatment and disposal to take place. This accorded with the basic principle of land use planning which presumes in favour of development proposals which accord with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
NPPG 10 also required development plans to express the land use aspects of the "National Waste Strategy" which was to be prepared by
SEPA in consultation with local authorities.
A review of
NPPG 10 commenced during 2005.
A.1.2
National Waste Strategy
In 1999
SEPA published the National Waste Strategy and was adopted by the Scottish Executive. The National Waste Strategy sets out the role planning authorities would need to play in achieving the objectives of the Strategy (i.e., a move towards waste prevention and sustainable waste management). It recommended that local plans include specific policies or criteria to enable the assessment of waste management facilities. The need for policies to address the following was stressed:
- Need for the facility;
- Compatibility with the Best Practicable Environmental Option (
BPEO);
- Effect on local communities, environment and transport.
It also recommended that local plans be more specific in land use terms and identify on their proposals maps areas of search; the location of all existing and consented facilities, together with existing and proposed civic amenity and public recycling facilities; and where appropriate identify specific sites. Finally, it outlined how the National Waste Strategy would be developed by the creation of Waste Strategy Areas and production of Area Waste Plans relating to local needs. The groups preparing these Plans would include representatives from
SEPA, local authorities, Enterprise Companies and the waste industry.
A.1.3
Planning Advice Note 63: Waste Management Planning
PAN 63 was published in 2002 by the Scottish Executive and complemented the provisions of
NPPG 10. It also built upon the information contained in the National Waste Strategy. Its core purpose, amongst other issues, was to
"enable Planning Authorities to implement the emerging and future Area Waste Plans" by setting out clear policies and practices to promote the infrastructure necessary for new methods of sustainable waste management. It clearly identified the Area Waste Plans as material land use planning considerations. It also stated that planning authorities should consider whether, and how urgently, development plans should be altered to take account of new requirements identified by the Area Waste Plans, giving rise to the work set out in this report.
A.1.4
The National Waste Plan and Area Waste Plans
These were published in 2003 by
SEPA and the Scottish Executive. The Plans were intended to form the keystone in the implementation of the National Waste Strategy. Area Waste Plans identified the "Best Practicable Environmental Option" for waste management within each of the 11 local waste strategy areas, and the type of facilities which would be required to achieve the
BPEO.
The National Waste Plan stressed the important role of the planning system in supporting delivery of the increased infrastructure required to sort and process waste. On development planning it was considered essential that an adequate policy and land use framework be established to support both delivery of the infrastructure and encourage minimisation of waste generation. In this regard, the National Waste Plan committed the Scottish Executive to writing to all planning authorities to remind them of the need to consider whether their development plans took account of the new requirements set out in the Area Waste Plans.
A.1.5
National Planning Framework
The National Planning Framework was produced by the Scottish Executive in 2004 to guide the spatial development of Scotland up to 2025. It is a material consideration as opposed to a prescriptive blueprint. On waste management it identifies indicative locational requirements for the period to 2013 and stresses the need for local authorities to work together to help deliver the targets of the National Waste Plan.
A.1.6
Action by Scottish Executive
Following on from the commitment included in the National Waste Plan (see paragraph 1.4) to remind local authorities of the need to ensure their development plans took account of the relevant Area Waste Plans, the Scottish Executive Planning Division wrote to all Scottish local authorities on 4 April 2003. A copy of this letter is attached as Appendix 2.
In this letter, the Scottish Executive requested that all Planning Authorities provide information on:-
- Provision made for waste management facilities in their current development plans;
- Whether this provision was compatible with the Area Waste Plan and National Waste Plan;
- If not, what steps were to be taken to amend the development plan to comply with the Area Waste Plan and National Waste Plan and the intended timetable for such steps.
Twenty-nine local authorities provided a response to this request, most within the prescribed timescale of the end of June 2003.
« Previous | Contents | Next »