A letter from The Minister for Local Government and Planning stated that the situation highlighted “is not ideal” but added “we have no plans at present to move away from the system of nationally prescribed thresholds in relation to the development as specified in an application for planning permission.”
If as the Scottish Government Minister stated in the same letter that the “nature of the project” is a consideration in the planning system and can be used by the developer to avoid the Hierarchy of Development Scotland Regulations 2009, then to avoid confusion, what constitutes this “nature of the project” should be clearly defined within the National Planning Regulations.
Hence the relevance of this petition on a National Planning issue.
Our local MSPs Alison McInnes and Nanette Milne raised questions at the Scottish Parliament but the Government gave the impression from their replies that they were comfortable with the situation where it was up to the developer if they chose to adhere to the Hierarchy of Developments Scotland Regulations 2009 or not.
The most recent reply on the 9th January 2014 from The Minister for Local Government and Planning to a question raised by Alison McInnes MSP on this issue of avoiding developments being classed as “Major” stated :-
“It is for the applicant to decide what size of development they wish to apply for”
The Scottish Government have been unable to quantify how prevalent this practice is in our planning system.
Planning Aid for Scotland was consulted PAS/C/2011/223 on the specific issue raised of 18 homes on a 2.655ha being divided to avoid being classed as Major. Their advice being that it could be open to a legal challenge.
The applications were discussed at several local Community Council meetings. Comments from our local councillors varied from the simple “they can do it” to “if it doesn’t say it is illegal it must be legal” to “it’s a major development”. In a letter from Aberdeenshire Council their opinion was that the developer could have submitted 18 separate applications for the 18 houses if they had so wished.