Promote People Power

Ordinary people should be allowed to take a fuller part in planning decisions that affect their communities and lives, says a leading environmental organisation.

Today, the Assembly will discuss a motion on the new planning system for Wales. Friends of the Earth Cymru is calling on Carwyn Jones to take this opportunity to show his commitment to people's rights of involvement in the planning system.

According to Friends of the Earth Cymru, many individuals and communities feel sidelined by a planning process that can be difficult to understand and to influence. The financial costs of obtaining information, the lack of time to comment, complex procedures, incomprehensible "planner" speak and the negative attitude to objectors are cited as some of the reasons for this.

Last year, the organisation produced a report, 'Sustaining Spin', which highlighted a number of instances around Wales where planning permission was granted even though the proposals conflicted with planning policy and faced significant local opposition [1].

The need for greater community involvement has been recognised, in principle, by the Welsh Assembly Government with the publication of its 'Planning: Delivering for Wales' programme. This was spelt out in a cabinet written statement last November when the Assembly Minister with responsibility for planning, Carwyn Jones, stressed the need for communities to have greater involvement in the planning process [2].

The motion being discussed today, following the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, empowers the Welsh Assembly Government to prescribe the shape of the Community Involvement Schemes [3] and the way the Local Development Plan [4] is communicated to the public.

Friends of the Earth Cymru's planning campaigner, Naomi Luhde-Thompson, said:

"Public participation in the planning process should be recognised as a central way of delivering a fairer and more acceptable planning system at a local level for Wales. The legacy of current unsustainable planning decisions will be felt by our children. Individuals and groups need to be able to challenge bad decisions which have been approved by short-sighted local authorities with little understanding of sustainable development. We are asking Carwyn Jones as Minister to make a special commitment to ensure that public participation in the planning system is made easy.

"Current planned regulations, on Community Involvement Schemes, only oblige local planning authorities to do the minimum in terms of involvement, such as presenting the documents for public view. Much more needs to be done to ensure access to information and greater participation."

Friends of the Earth Cymru considers it vital that all Local Authorities in Wales are obliged to establish clear and simple Community Involvement Schemes. These, it says, should incorporate measures such as the notification of people affected by proposals, public speaking rights at planning committees, the promotion of roundtable discussions with objectors and the establishment of an internal complaints procedure.

Naomi Luhde-Thompson continued:

"Community Involvement Schemes need to provide three things. People need:

• to know what is going on
• be allowed to shape decisions
• be allowed an opportunity to be heard if the system lets them down

Only once these are specifically required by regulations will the planning system provide adequate opportunities for people to get involved and for the widespread feeling of dissatisfaction that now exists to be overcome."

Notes

1. 'Sustaining Spin' by Gordon James for Friends of the Earth Cymru January 2004. Examples of planning applications that have aroused considerable controversy and ill feeling that are looked at in the report include the proposed housing development near South Sebastopol at Pontypool; the Bluestone Leisure Park proposal in Pembrokeshire; the rugby and housing development at Island Farm, Bridgend and the Bargoed by-pass.

2."The new proposal for community involvement in Local Development Plans represents a key element of our planning reforms and links to our commitment to participation as part of sustainable development". Carwyn Jones, Cabinet written statement, 23rd November 2004

3. Community Involvement Schemes are meant to be a statement of the Local Authority's policy on "involvement" throughout the planning system.

4. Local Development Plans are the plans that set out the objectives of the local authority in relation to the development and use of land in their area, and their general policies for the implementation of these objectives.