PLANNING SCOTLAND / THE PLANNING ETC (SCOTLAND) ACT 2006
During the past year, significant progress has been made to modernise the Scottish planning system, making it quicker and more efficient with community involvement at its heart.
The introduction of the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill 2005 into the Scottish Parliament on 19 December 2005 was the first major step in this programme. Since its introduction, the Communities Committee has taken evidence at Stage 1, which started on 11 January 2006, and finished with the Stage 1 debate on Wednesday 17 May. Here, we saw the Bill progress successfully through the first stage of its Parliamentary scrutiny. The approach taken by the committee was open and transparent and involved a wide range of interested parties; 42 organisations gave oral evidence, 16 organisations gave written evidence and 10 organisations gave supplementary written evidence.
Stage 2 of the Bill process commenced on 14 June 2006 and was completed on 4 October 2006. Here, the committee considered amendments to the Bill from all MSPs. 255 amendments were laid, 68 of which were Executive amendments. Stage 3 consideration was held on 15 and 16 November 2006, when a further 161 amendments were discussed and 65 were accepted. Parliament then passed the Bill by 104 votes to 13, with 1 abstention. The Bill received Royal Assent on 20 December 2006.
Our modernisation will establish a new planning system that is quicker and more efficient, with community involvement at it heart. These two themes - efficiency and community involvement - are the two pillars to which are reforms are to be built. An efficient planning system will be a major contributor to sustainable economic growth, and to delivering high quality outcomes. Creating more opportunities for community participation will help local people shape the decision that affect their communities and forge new partnerships and ways of working.
The second National Planning Framework will be a key element in the planning modernisation package. For the first time there will be the opportunity for a national debate about Scotland's long-term spatial development and the key projects required to support it.
We expect to begin formal consultation on the scope and content of the second National Planning Framework early in 2007. This will be followed by the issue of a consultative draft in the autumn of 2007, scrutiny by Parliament in the spring of 2008, and publication of the final version of NPF2 in the autumn of 2008.
However, the modernisation of the planning system goes much wider than just the changes being made through the Act. The new planning system can and must be a positive tool to add value to the communities in which we live and work, by enabling the right developments to be built in the right places and by protecting what is special. But planning's potential needs to be unlocked by all the organisations and individuals that operate the system and interact with it.
The new planning system has the potential to be inclusive, efficient, fit for purpose and to deliver sustainable development. It can and must become a positive tool for managing change in the longer-term public interest. It must promote and facilitate developments which are necessary for jobs, homes and improved public services and ensure that all developments are located in the right places and built to the right quality. It also has a significant role in ensuring that we meet international and national obligations on the conservation of the natural and built environment. But to unlock planning's potential, changes in approach and behaviour - culture change - will be required of the organisations and individuals that operate and interact with the system.
As with all modernisation initiated by primary legislation, many of the fundamental measures approved by Parliament will take time to come into force. In order to achieve the aims of the reform agenda, an intense programme of modernising and updating regulations, circulars, statutory guidance, Scottish Planning Policies and Planning Advice Notes will take place. This programme of work is a huge task that needs to be thought out thoroughly to ensure that the key areas of planning modernisation are implemented as soon as practically possible. Our approach to drawing up the reforms so far has been open and transparent and has involved a wide range of interested parties. Work is well underway in developing this implementation programme and we will continue to engage with stakeholders' throughout the process of preparing secondary legislation.
The Scottish Parliament website gives details of the legislative process and the prints of the Bill at each stage with accompanying documents. Stage 1 evidence and report; lists of Stage 2 and Stage 3 amendments, and minutes of all the committee sessions are also available on the Scottish Parliament website. Following Royal Assent, the Act and Explanatory Notes are available on the Office of Public Sector Information ( OPSI) website under Scottish Legislation.
( http://www.ospi.gov.uk/legislation/Scotland/S-acts2006a.htm )
For further information on the Planning Bill contact: Neil Ingram on 0131 244 5919 or at Neil.Ingram@scotland.gsi.gov.uk