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Rights of Appeal in Planning

Covering Letter

Dear Consultee

PUBLIC CONSULTATION - RIGHTS OF APPEAL IN PLANNING

I enclose a consultation paper on the above subject and invite your comments on the questions raised.

Our White Paper Your Place Your Plan, published in March 2003, brought forward proposals for strengthening and enhancing public involvement in the land use planning system in Scotland. The White Paper announced an intention to issue a consultation paper on third party planning appeals in the context of the measures set out in the White Paper to enhance public engagement in the planning system. The commitment to consult on the issue was reiterated in A Partnership for a Better Scotland : Partnership Agreement, published in May 2003.

There are complex issues around extending the right of appeal. We think it is important that all stakeholders should have the chance to express their views on the subject before any decision is taken.

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by Friday 30 July 2004.

Please send your response to:

rightsofappeal@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
or
Richard West
Rights of appeal in planning
Scottish Executive Development Department
Area 2-H (Bridge)
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ

If you have any questions about this consultation please contact Richard West on 0131 244 7060.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response the numbers of the specific questions, or parts of the consultation paper, to which you are responding. This will aid our analysis of the responses received.

I also enclose a note about the Executive’s consultation processes which includes a Respondee Information Form. This form allows you to indicate how you wish your consultation response to be handled. Please return your completed form along with your response to the consultation. All responses will be acknowledged.

If you wish to access this consultation online, go to http://www.scotland.gov.uk/view/views.asp. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is, if you prefer to submit your response by e-mail to rightsofappeal@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

This consultation paper can be made available in alternative formats or community languages on request. Please contact Richard West on 0131 244 7060.

Access to consultation responses

We will make all responses not marked confidential available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library 21 days after the closing date of the consultation unless confidentiality is requested. In addition, we will later publish an analysis of responses on the Scottish Executive website. All responses will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library or placed on the website.

For future engagement:

A new email alert system for Scottish Executive consultations (to be named SEconsult) is currently being planned. This system will allow stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new Scottish Executive consultations (including web links). SEconsult will complement, but in no way replace, Scottish Executive distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to ‘keep an eye’ on all Scottish Executive consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We will publicise the launch of the system on the Scottish Executive website and would encourage you to register when it is available.

Yours faithfully,

Elizabeth Baird

RESPONDEE INFORMATION FORM

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.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body. Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises.

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 ( www.scotland.gov.uk ) enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses. 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 (the address is Scottish Executive Library, K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD. Telephone 0131 244 4552).

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

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to:

Andy Kinnaird
Scottish Executive Development Department
Planning Division
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ
E-mail : Andy.Kinnaird@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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