Prior to attending the Wales Planning Conference in Cardiff recently, there was much anticipation that the Planning (Wales) Bill would be imminently passed at the Assembly. Duly, the night before Conference came confirmation and Carl Sargeant (the Minister) was able to announce the news in his keynote speech.
All bets are now on for Her Majesty to grant Royal Assent shortly andwe expect the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 to be law by the end of July.
The passing of the Bill was the trigger for the Minister to announce consultation on implementing a key element of the new system - Developments of National Significance. These empower the Welsh Government to become the "active steward' and decision maker on some large scale projects (some 3 or so per year being suggested by the Minister).
Whilst this sort of things often grabs the headlines, the Bill/Act merely provides the skeleton on which the muscle will be formed. The devil will be in the detail. It is perhaps not surprising that mention has been made of potentially 75 or elements of secondary legislation necessary to effect the Act.
Keys areas we will be watching out for in the near future include:
- Whether the A55 corridor is designated a Strategic Planning Area, the arrangements and responsibilities for its Panel and Strategic Development Plans should it be designated and, not least, its geographical extent.
- The statutory requirements for pre-application community consultation on major applications. The early suggestion was to use the current definitions of "major" development which catches sites of 10 dwellings (or 0.5Ha), floorspace of more than 1000m2 or sites with an area of more than 1ha. These could be a key risk and potentially onerous requirement on our clients who regularly operate at these sorts of thresholds.
- The relationships of the National Development Framework to and conformity matters for LDPs. Eyes were raised at suggestions that the NDF might well now require some pretty swift LDP reviews - there is a duty of conformation . If that's the case the risk for further uncertainty is surely counterintuitive. .
- Enforcement Warning Notices in situations where "acceptable" development has been carried out without a prior permission but it would be otherwise acceptable - ie prompting planning applications - a potentially welcome tool if used positively, giving a degree of certainty.
- Removing certain "second bite" elements (such as retrospective planning applications) in Enforcement Notice/appeal situations.
The Law Commission is undertaking a scoping exercise for Welsh Government with a view to complete consolidation of Planning Law as it relates to Wales. Watch out for that a new Planning Bill sooner than you think.
As ever the system is a moving feast and as soon as key proposals come forward we will keep you updated.
Pete
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