6. Will the Minister make a statement on the future of the planning system in Wales? OAQ54255

Certainly. The future of the planning system will be based on the 'Planning Policy Wales' document, published last December, and the national development framework, which we will consult on over the summer. They align the planning system directly and systematically with the requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. Like many Members in this National Assembly for Wales, I've been approached by constituents with disputes with their neighbours in relation to the height of hedges, and I was wondering whether this might be something that the Welsh Government might look at as part of its future planning policy, because it is a serious issue; it does cause significant neighbourhood dispute levels for the police sometimes to have to deal with. And the lack of guidance around hedge height and what constitutes a hedge sometimes is actually causing some problems for planning departments around Wales, including in my own constituency in Conwy. So, I wonder what action the Welsh Government might be able to take to help bring some clarity to resolve these issues.

Yes, actually, already the local authority can take quite a bit of action in terms of what it says in its local development plan, so I would very much encourage the Member to ensure that his local planning authority takes cognisance of any of the things that are raised through his constituency office, and actually looks locally to make sure that it has all of the right provisions in its own local development plan that will assist him.

Minister, clean air, pollution matters and emissions can be helped by planning departments. I understand your answer to Leanne Wood earlier on in saying environmental issues can't be addressed on a sole basis, but the Government can actually help by putting some guidance in place, particularly when it comes to written things like emissions in any applications. If we want to reduce emissions in an area, particularly in Port Talbot, for example, where we are always criticised for the air quality, you could talk about having cumulative levels of emissions written down and, therefore, an application that goes in for adding to that can be challenged and based upon that factor. Will you look at this matter to ensure that we can introduce this concept so that when applications come in that could actually be detrimental to the overall air quality, they can be dealt with as a collective, rather than just a single application?

Yes. I'm delighted to be able to tell the Member that the local authority could already do that. We completely revised 'Planning Policy Wales' to reflect the goals and ways of working set out in the well-being of future generations Act just last December. And if the local authority wants to revise its LDP in the light of that new document, which has placemaking at the heart of the national planning policy, then they, of course, can do so. The whole point of the revision of 'Planning Policy Wales' is for the sort of placemaking that David Rees highlights, and so the local authority is already able to do that if it wishes to revise its plan accordingly.

Minister, I have asked on a number of occasions with regard to the planning system, particularly with regard to large housing planning applications, about the issue of broadening the statutory number of consultees, particularly, for example, those that would have to deliver, for example, GP services and so on. Now, local health boards haven't been very efficient at this, but clearly, there are major impacts often on the deliverers of primary public services. I wonder whether any progress has been made in that respect, and also on my suggestion that there should, perhaps, be a levy on major planning applications that would actually fund representation for community groups where it's clear large applications are going to have a massive impact on local communities.

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.