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Covering Letter

Dear

STATUTORY GUIDANCE ON PLANNING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - CONSULTATION PAPER

Comments are invited on the attached draft statutory guidance on planning and sustainable development. The Planning etc. (Scotland) Act requires Scottish Ministers, in preparing the National Planning Framework, and planning authorities, in drawing up development plans, to carry out those functions with the objective of contributing to sustainable development. As provided for by Section 3E(3) of the Act, this draft guidance is intended to support the delivery of this requirement.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR SAY

A 12 week consultation is now being undertaken on the draft guidance. To ensure that the advice on planning and sustainable development meets your needs the Scottish Executive would like to know what you think. Please send your views by 22 June 2007 to the address, or e-mail, noted below.

Responses to :-
planningandsusdev@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or
Sandra Carey

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form enclosed as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential and will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Executive are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

What Happens Next?

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library within 20 working days of the closing date and on the Scottish Executive consultation web pages shortly after. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or otherwise publishing them. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE library on 031 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to inform the final drafting of the statutory guidance. We aim to issue a report on this consultation exercise and a final version of the statutory guidance around the end of 2007.

Comments and complaints

If you have any concerns about how this consultation exercise has been conducted please send them to me at the above address.

Further Information

Requests for additional copies of the draft guidance should be directed to Sandra Carey on 0131 244 7540.

Yours faithfully
Rosie Leven
Principal Planner

THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CONSULTATION PROCESS

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

The Scottish Executive encourages consultation that is thorough, effective and appropriate to the issue under consideration and the nature of the target audience. Consultation exercises take account of a wide range of factors and no two exercises are likely to be the same.

Typically, Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the area of consultation, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses ^[1] . Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of ways, such as through public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises. Copies of all the responses received to consultation exercises (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4552).

All Scottish Executive consultation papers and related publications (e.g., analysis of response reports) can be accessed at: Scottish Executive consultations ^[1] . The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review;
• inform the development of a particular policy;
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals;
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented.

Final decisions on the issues under consideration will also take account of a range of other factors, including other available information and research evidence.

The Scottish Executive also has an email alert system for SE consultations ( SEconsult ). This system allows stakeholders, individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces, SE distribution lists. It is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultation activity and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We encourage you to register.

^[1]www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations

RESPONDEE INFORMATION FORM: Draft Statutory Guidance on Planning and Sustainable Development

Please complete the details below and return it with your response. This will help ensure we handle your response appropriately. Thank you for your help.

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