SNP and Conservative MSPs voted through the Planning Bill at Holyrood yesterday. The Scottish Government says the Bill gives communities more say in the planning system – but campaigners are bitterly disappointed and argue that the legislation is a missed opportunity.
The Scottish Greens, Labour and the Lib-Dems voted against the Bill.
The government says the ‘radical shake-up’ of planning laws gives communities more say in shaping the future development of their areas and maintain that the Planning Bill includes a raft of new measures to empower people and organisations to get involved in planning the future of their communities.
A new right means people will now be able to prepare local place plans covering what will be done in their communities, including over issues such as housing, open space and community facilities as well as business and employment opportunities.
Local Authorities will be legally required to take local place plans into account when preparing their development plans.
The Bill takes a new approach to strategic planning in Scotland introducing a duty on local authorities to work together to produce ‘regional spatial strategies’.
These strategies will provide long-term direction to large scale development, matching local and national planning needs, outcomes and priorities.
Additionally, the National Planning Framework, Scotland’s long-term plan for future development, will now be required to be approved by Parliament.
Other changes covered by the Bill include new powers for local authorities to introduce control areas where planning permission will always be required if owners want to change the use of their property to short-term lets.
However the Bill does not include a Third Party right of appeal, meaning that communities are denied the same rights as developers.
Developers have the right to appeal when a planning permission has been refused – and often do – but the objector does not have the same right to appeal if a planning permission, however controversial, has been granted.
Campaigners have pressed to get the government to end this David vs Goliath situation, but without success. It’s a huge victory for the developers,who have the time and financial resources at their disposal to challenge planning decisions, sometimes making minor modifications to plans before returning with another planning application. They can keep coming back.
Voluntary community groups like community councils, who are statutory consultees in the planning process, just don’t have those same resources and they face an unequal struggle – and that doesn’t change under the new legislation.
Planning Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Scotland’s varied places – our cities, towns, villages, countryside, coast and islands – are an integral part of our national and local identity.
“This Bill is a radical new way forward for planning in Scotland. It’s a vision that empowers communities to have a positive say in shaping their future.
“There is now more scope for local planning to influence regional and national plans, and we expect to see more collaboration where people and local authorities across Scotland work closely together for all our benefit.
“The quality of the places where we live, work and play can have a lasting impact on health, wellbeing and prosperity – that’s why planning, and this Bill, are so important.”
Important, indeed, but perhaps the most important element is missing?
Clare Symonds is Chair of Planning Democracy, an organisation that supports community groups to work for a fair and inclusive planning system in Scotland. She said: “We are deeply disappointed by this Bill, which has been a huge missed opportunity to transform the way we do planning.
“Scotland needs to take a different approach to development to tackle key issues such as the climate emergency. However this Bill reinforces a business as usual approach that continues to exclude communities and won’t transform development in the ways that we urgently need to.
“The planning review acknowledged that the planning system has not yet been effective at engaging communities let alone empowering them. There were strong words from politicians at stage 2 demanding that ‘real people’ should be put at the heart of the planning system. Yet Local Place Plans and mediation have been put forward as alternatives to a right of appeal.
“They are the latest sweetener for communities to coat the bitter pill that is a planning bill that has nothing to offer in terms of citizen empowerment. In a system that affords communities no rights and no status they will do nothing to empower communities, indeed they stand to create yet further public mistrust and disillusionment in a system that strongly favours the development industry.”
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