Name: | Adele Shaw |
| Organisation: | Historic Scotland |
| Role / Daily Tasks: | Environmental Impact Assessment Team Leader |
Time in post: | |
| Past Experience: | |
February 2010
What new processes has the new planning system introduced into your work?
The new planning system requires early engagement for major developments. Historic Scotland has a good record for working in this way with developers on what would now be termed 'National' projects and I have been part of that, having been based in Historic Scotland's Development Assessment Team and its predecessor for five years. These projects are generally large infrastructure projects with the potential to have significant impacts on the historic environment. Engagement with developers through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process has allowed us to ensure the identification of potential impacts and suitable ways to mitigate them.
Historic Scotland is consulted on all EIA developments through the Scottish Ministers and a large proportion of those consultations are for wind farms. These developments can be controversial due to their size and location. They also have the potential for significant impacts on the historic environment. Many of these will now also be classed as 'Major' developments and the opportunity presented by the new planning system is that we can focus effort on working with developers at the early stages of the EIA process where it looks like their project may have a significant impact on the historic environment. The aim of such early engagement will be to identify opportunities for securing the appropriate mitigation of any impacts. We are trying to focus our advice to developers from the outset to allow them to identify the aspects of the historic environment where we think impacts are most likely to be significant and where possible to find ways to reduce them to an acceptable level. I am yet to see a step change in attitude from the development community, but I am seeing encouraging signs from some who see the advantage of seeking our views early and resolving problems before their scheme is too advanced.
April 2010
What is the most positive change you are experiencing?
Part of my role is to be the main point of contact within the agency for certain local authorities in the Development Planning process. The big change I have noticed is that local authorities are contacting us earlier in the process and that we are expected to contribute information and ideas to the formulation of the Development Plan from its earliest stages and throughout the plan making process rather than just commenting on drafts or finalised plans.
I have been involved in the pre-Main Issues consultation for the Stirling Local Development Plan. For the most part this has meant attending a number of useful key agency meetings and commenting on papers for certain policy topic areas. The Council also involved Historic Scotland in a more creative way during its visioning exercise which involved us and other stakeholders taking part in the Future City game. We have yet to see the Main Issues Report (MIR) but I look forward to seeing what contribution early key agency participation has made when it comes out for consultation.
Other colleagues in my team have been busy engaging with other local authorities across Scotland in similar exercises. One final significant change to the way we respond to Development Plans is that we now contribute our comments on the plan to an overall Scottish Government (SG) response rather than responding on our own. So far this has been a positive change for us which puts us in more regular contact with SG colleagues.