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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 4 November 2024
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Displaying 809 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

As I say, I would not expect such amendments to be made very often. My officials can correct me, but I assume that, if planning authorities were to amend an LDP, they would introduce all the various changes that they wanted to make in one go, rather than making several changes to the LDP concurrently.

Regarding the substance of your question, we are very conscious of the resourcing challenges that planning authorities and the whole planning ecosystem are suffering from, and we are taking separate steps, which I will outline to the Parliament in the near future, to help with and address those resourcing challenges.

As I say, it will be up to the planning authorities to decide when they need to make amendments to their LDPs. I am sure that they will factor in the resourcing requirements accordingly.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

The plans are in place for a period of time, and planning authorities will go through the process, with the evidence that they need to provide as part of it, as well as the gate checks. As you know, we are starting off on that process with a number of planning authorities, which will proceed on the basis of the information that they have available at the time.

Circumstances can of course change, and it may be that the planning authority itself will have a change of direction, or other events may happen that require the authority to review things. Evidence may come to light that the authority was not aware of previously, which would require it to review the LDP. We would not want authorities to be locked into something that could not be amended, so an amending provision should be allowed if it is required.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

I will ask officials to comment on the specifics of why those areas were included.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

The national planning framework can be reviewed in a number of ways, but specific amendments would be at the discretion of ministers, where we see that a significant change to one of the policies has come to light and we feel that there needs to be an amendment. We do not expect that to happen very often, but we have that provision, if it is required, if we see that something significant has arisen and there is a need to address that.

Obviously, we are going through a process in which NPF4 is still bedding in. As it is a new approach to planning, we are working through and issuing guidance letters and so on as things come up. If we came to a situation where we felt that there was a need to amend one or more of the policies, we would have the scope to do that. At present, however, we have no expectations or plans to address anything specific that has come to light through such amendments.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

Absolutely—please do.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

The amendments to NPF4 would be done at a Scotland-wide policy level, but with regard to local development plans and local specifics, it is important that local groups and interested parties and individuals take the opportunity to input to local development plans as councils and planning authorities bring those forward.

We have talked today and in earlier committee sessions about the importance of encouraging local communities to bring forward their local place plans to feed into that process. It is important that we highlight that where we can to local interested parties so that they have the opportunity to feed into those LDPs.

09:30  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

That is correct, unless officials are going to tell me that there is more nuance to it.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

That is a good question, and I would note first of all that the consultation period is longer than that for planning applications, which is typically a minimum of 21 days. A 30-day period is the longest in the various existing regimes—in this case, the environmental impact assessment process that we had to consider. Therefore, we asked in the consultation whether 30 days were sufficient, and there was overwhelming support for the proposal. Indeed, 73 per cent of those who took part in the consultation indicated that that was sufficient time. Therefore, we think that that period is long enough, and it strikes a balance between providing an opportunity for engagement and giving interested parties the scope to comment, and keeping the process moving.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

We are comfortable that its being available online is sufficient. I understand that that will have been part of the consultation process. Kristen, do you want to comment on the specifics?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 29 October 2024

Ivan McKee

I will defer to my officials, who will be able to give more detail on the consultation process through which members of the public will have the opportunity to have sight of the amendments and comment on them. Perhaps Ruairidh Anderson would like to say more about that.

09:15