Current status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 12 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that the interests of objectors in the planning system are taken account of in its preparations for consulting on rights of appeal in planning.
We receiveregular correspondence on the issue and views previously expressed to the Executive have been taken into account as work on the forthcoming consultationhas progressed.
We set up astakeholder group to assist us in identifying the issues to be covered in ourconsultation paper. The group is made up of people from local authorities,industry bodies, trade unions, community and environmental groups, and otherplanning experts. Several members on the group have experience of raisingobjections on planning matters and have shared their views and experienceswithin the group.