Scotland planning news, February 2019

 

Scotland’s Court of Session has overturned a Scottish Ministers’ decision to dismiss an appeal for a 600-home scheme on Green Belt land, originally refused by the Stirling Council. The Court of Session’s decision found that the Scottish Ministers had failed to have regard to a shortfall in housing allocations in the emerging Local Development Plan (LDP).

Specifically, the report submitted to the Scottish Ministers in June 2017 to inform their final decision failed to acknowledge a shortfall in housing land supply within the emerging LDP (approved in May 2018); the shortfall of 169 units became apparent to the reporters following the report submission, and rendered the Scottish Planning Policy’s presumption in favour of development a “significant material consideration”.

The appellants did not challenge the content of the submitted report but criticised what had happened after the report had been submitted. Specifically, the appellants criticised the Scottish Ministers’ failure to take into account a significant material consideration, this being the new LDP approval and adoption, which confirmed a 169 housing land supply shortfall

‘There was a real possibility that the respondents [i.e. Scottish Ministers] would have reached a different conclusion if they had not left out of account a relevant consideration and taken into account an irrelevant consideration. In that context, there was a “tilted balance” in favour of development.’

In reaching its decision on the legal validity of the Scottish Ministers’ decision, and allowing the appeal, the Court held that

‘The respondents therefore failed to take into account a relevant material consideration; that the LDP process had been practically completed and produced a housing land supply shortage for which no solution was offered. They purported to take into account an irrelevant consideration; that there was an ongoing LDP process which would resolve the shortage in the relatively short term. For both of these reasons, the appeal must be allowed.’

The Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has announced a £40m investment aimed at supporting the delivery of the Cross Tay Link Road. The road link is expected to reduce congestion in Perth and create further opportunities for housing and economic development.

A further £10m investment has been announced to support manufacturing businesses in the region, covering Dundee, Perth, Angus and the north of Fife.

Nicola Sturgeon commented:

‘I am confident the Scottish Government’s overall investment of £200 million in the Tay Cities region will improve people’s quality of life and encourage sustainable economic growth in the Tay area and Scotland as a whole.’

The Government published a Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill at the end of 2018, which set out the environmental principles and governance for a post-Brexit Britain. 

The Bill includes clauses for the creation of an Office for Environmental Protection, which would be required to scrutinise environmental policy and law, investigate complaints, and take action where necessary to make sure environmental law is properly implemented.

It also includes clauses to require the Secretary of State to publish a policy statement on environmental principles, including guidance on their interpretation and proportional application by ministers.

Provisions that require the preparation of environmental improvement plans covering a period of at least 15 years would not apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The foreword to the draft Bill explains that the draft clauses published so far are part of a broader final Bill, which will also contain specific clauses regarding air quality, nature recovery, waste and resource efficiency and water management.

Mixed picture emerges for planning and environmental appeals performance

The Scottish Government has published its quarterly performance statistics for planning and environmental appeals (July-September 2018).

The latest statistics show that the 80% determination target, set by the Scottish Government has been met only for one appeal dealt with via the ‘No further procedure’ route. Appeals dealt via ‘site inspection procedure’ have slightly missed the target, having met their 12-weeks determination target in 78% of the cases.

However, the latest quarterly statistics show an improvement when compared to the last financial year’s figures. The relevant 2017-18 statistics showed that the determination targets for any of the available appeal procedures were missed in 2017-18, although the overall number of appeals was naturally greater (406 vs 160 in the July-September quarter).