The Future of the Planning System

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 17 July 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:00, 17 July 2019

So, a range of things there. In terms of broadening the list of statutory consultees, statutory consultees are expected to provide a substantive response to the local planning authority within 21 days when consulted on planning applications, and 28 days of a pre-application consultation. That can be a significant undertaking. We do need to be sure that the local health board would be in a position to meet those expectations consistently, and we are very happy to have those conversations. Indeed, we have been having those conversations for some time. That's not to say, however, that the local planning authority cannot consult the health board outside of it being a statutory consultee, and we certainly recommend that as good practice. The local authority can, of course, put a section 106 agreement in place on a development where it can show that the infrastructure contribution is necessary, and we do encourage local authorities to do that in terms of the overall plan for their infrastructure.

GPs' first-hand experience of the capacity in their area—we would expect that to be channelled through the local health board and, indeed, through the regional partnership board so that the area planning arrangements have a good basis on which to put in place the local development plan in the first place.

I can't emphasise enough to Members in this Chamber that the purpose of a plan-led process is to make sure that local people are engaged in the plan, so that, at the point that the local authority comes forward and earmarks sites for various sorts of development, people can come forward and say, 'But that will have this effect on this school or this infrastructure' and so on. That is the purpose of a planning system, not to have a random system where each planning application, on its own, is looked at. The whole purpose of the plan is to look across the piece at the infrastructure, and so I can't emphasise that enough, and, if we can get that message out more and more as the LDPs go through their review processes, we will have done the people of Wales a really good service.

In terms of support for residents in the appeal process, as I say, the residents need to be involved at the planning stage, where at all possible. Of course, it's open to any individual group to participate in their planning appeals process. They need help to make sure that their representations are based on sound planning reasons. It is not enough to just object because you don't like something; you have to base it on a relevant planning consideration, and people can be helped with that. We do have Planning Aid Wales, which is a charitable organisation that seeks to support community engagement in the planning process. It provides guidance and, in some cases, direct support to community groups, and I'm happy to direct any groups of residents that you feel may need that support to Planning Aid Wales.