SCOTTISH ministers have been warned they face a humiliating defeat on the first overhaul of the country’s planning system in 20 years.
MSPs voted 107 to four in favour of the general principles of the Planning (Scotland) Bill at Holyrood, but all opposition parties promised to try to amend it later.
Local government minister Kevin Stewart was told that unless there were substantial changes, the minority SNP government would fail to get the legislation passed.
The Bill is intended to update the 1997 law that currently governs the planning system.
Ministers say it will give communities a greater and earlier influence in the system.
However the opposition parties say it will concentrate power in the government’s hands.
Tory MSP Graeme Simpson calling it a “power grab” and “very centralising”.
He said: “There's little in this Bill that we like, it pleases no-one but the Scottish Government.
“Housebuilders say it doesn't deliver for them, environmentalists say it doesn't deliver for them, communities are unimpressed, it's centralising, it's all about the minister.”
Labour's Monica Lennon criticised the Bill for "a centralising tendency throughout" and "half-baked" plans for an infrastructure levy.
"The Bill will require significant amendment at stage two to make it fit for purpose,” she said.
Green Andy Wightman said the Bill was not the bold, transformative change the planning system needed, but merely “concentrates further power in the hands of ministers, pays lip service to genuine public engagement and removes valuable strategic planning powers”.
LibDem Alex Cole-Hamilton, whose party was the only one to vote against the Bill at Stage One, said it “fundamentally undermines autonomy and accountability”.
Holyrood’s local government has also warned the Bill does not do enough for communities.
Mr Stewart rejected calls for third parties to be able to appeal planning decisions.
He said: “Stronger engagement at the outset will be much more constructive than adding adversarial appeals at the end. There's already too much conflict and mistrust in the system.
"A third party or equal right of appeal can only add to that and that would run entirely counter to the positive collaboration pursued through the Bill.
"We should not do anything that could restrict the potential for future investment in Scotland by removing or limiting applicants' rights to appeal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel