Places, people and planning: update on proposal 9

Proposal 9. Keeping decisions local – rights of appeal.

We believe that more review and appeal decisions should be made by local authorities rather than centrally. We also want to ensure that the system is sufficiently flexible to reflect the distinctive challenges and opportunities in different parts of Scotland.

Why we are making a change

We want to improve communities' trust in the planning system by ensuring decisions are taken at the most appropriate administrative level including reviews and appeals of decisions.

What we are doing

• We want to change the way that minor developments such as advertisement consents are handled through to appeal.
• We will take a look in more detail at the role and effectiveness of local review bodies.
• We have not pursued an earlier proposal for Ministers to take decisions more frequently, rather than Reporters.

How we will deliver

• primary legislation – The Planning Bill includes propoals to make training for elected members mandatory, and to have more decisions reviewed by local review bodies
• secondary Legislation – further provisions about schemes of delegation and detailed requirements for training will be set out in regulations
• guidance – yes
• non legislative action – yes

Next steps

We believe that more can be done through consistency in local schemes of delegation in order to encourage greater consistency as well as subsidiarity of decision making. Clear guidance and sharing of good practice could help to support this.

The Planning Bill inlcudes proposals for mandatory training for elected members who are serving on a planning committee or Local Review Body, potentially supported with testing.

We have provided financial support to planning authorities who are taking forward training following the May 2017 local elections.