The pivotal strategy for the "Modernising Planning" agenda was a
new approach to prioritising important development proposals,
through the introduction of different categories of development
applications, with different mechanisms being set up for each
stream designed to get them through the system with increased
efficiency and certainty. A new Section 26A for the Town and
Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 provided for three categories;
"national developments", "major developments" and "local
developments", and the draft regulations propose definitions of
these. The overall approach is to make "routine" proposals as
straightforward as possible and to concentrate development
management resources on complex or significant proposals albeit on
a planned basis. What category a development falls into has
immediate implications for development management procedures,
appeal rights and development.
The first category are "national developments"
i.e. those proposals of national significance chosen by government,
which have been included by Ministers in the new draft "National
Planning Framework" known as NPF2. This has now been published for
"discussion" but when approved will have similar status to the
approved SDP and LDP. There are nine projects proposed for this
category; the Forth crossing; Edinburgh Airport Enhancement;
Glasgow Airport Enhancement; Grangemouth Freight Hub; Container
Terminals at Rosyth and Scapa Flow; Grid reinforcements to support
renewable energy; Glasgow Strategic Drainage scheme; and the 2014
Commonwealth Games Facilities. The idea behind NPF2 is that the
national developments it contains will be regarded as approved in
principle by the Scottish Parliament. While the detail of any
particular proposal will still require to be considered through an
application process, the whole question of whether a national
development is needed will be regarded as settled by
Parliament.
The next category is "major developments" which are to be
application proposals of more than local significance. These are
currently suggested as:-
• All applications requiring Environmental Impact
Assessment
• Any housing application for 100 or more units, or for a site area
of more than 2 hectares
• Business/industry/storage and distribution proposals of more than
20,000m2 or of a site area of more than 4 hectares
• Renewable energy proposals of more than 20MW generating
capacity
• Waste management facilities with a capacity of over 25,000 tonnes
of waste per annum or 50 tonnes weight of sewage sludge
• Transport infrastructure - all roads, lines, waterways of more
than 8 kilometres and all motorway service areas
• A catch all - all developments of 10,000m2 or where the area
exceeds 2 hectares.
There will be more time allowed for planning authorities to
determine major applications from the present two to four
months.
Next, "local developments" which are basically
all other applications. There will be no automatic right of appeal
to the Scottish Ministers for local developments. If they are
refused, or if there are issues about proposed conditions, they are
supposed to be referred to local review bodies, which are to be set
up by Councils (see below).
Another key action point to secure the objectives of efficiency
through the reforms is to be increased permitted
development rights, in order to reduce the number of
applications submitted to Councils in the first place. Councils are
also to increase the number of applications which are determined by
officers using delegated powers, and these are to be subject to the
local appeal mechanisms.