PLANNING POLICY STATEMENT3

Planning Policy Statement

Abstract

This paper discusses how development planning in Scotland is being reformed and modernized. It examines the interest in the potential of model development plan policies as a device to enhance the efficiency of the land use planning system, and explores the role of the various communities of interest who assert a stake in policy design. This paper considers the land use policy subjects that are perceived as having potential for expression in model policy form, and distinguishes between environmental, developmental and procedural. It considers the implications for the policy making process, and, particularly, for those involved in policy design.

Table of Content

CHAPTER ONE4

INTRODUCTION4

Background4

Development planning in Scotland6

Modernizing development planning in Scotland9

Making and shaping model land use policies12

Re-drawing public policy making16

The challenge of civil renewal and inclusion18

The challenge of 'congested' public sector agendas24

The challenge of spatiality26

Towards a new ethos of land use policy and planning?28

CHAPTER TWO35

LITERATURE REVIEW35

The movers and shapers of land use policy35

Model planning policies in practice38

Ideology and reform42

Framing public policy reform44

Modernization in Scotland46

CHAPTER THREE50

METHODOLOGY50

Literature Selection Criteria51

Search Technique51

CHAPTER FOUR52

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS52

Support for model planning policies?52

Suitable model policy topics?56

CHAPTER FIVE66

CONCLUSIONS66

REFERENCES70

Chapter One

Introduction

Background

Land use planning in the UK is essentially a statutory function and a public sector activity. In broad terms, it provides the context to land use and development through a set of regulatory controls that span permitted development rights and full planning controls (Rydin, 2003). Contemporary land use planning decision-making takes place within what has been described as a 'plan-led' system (Gatenby and Williams, 1996). This effectively affirms the primacy of the development plan as the primary material consideration in land use planning decision-making.

It also confirms the role of the development plan in nurturing and sustaining local political and public support, together with investor confidence. Yet, an important distinctive characteristic of the UK development planning system is its discretionary nature. In practice, then, there is provision for wide administrative discretion by local planning authorities in balancing the public and private interests in the use and development of land. Effectively, local land use development plans serve to provide an indication of policy intention and objective, rather than presenting a binding framework on land and property development (Booth, 2002). Moreover, the judicial process has relatively limited powers of intervention or redress in such matters (Cullingworth and Nadin, 1994).

This configuration of state controls is held to set the UK arrangements apart from the relatively less flexible, and more prescriptive, zoning plans which are in force elsewhere in the European arena (Commission of the European Communities, 1997). Yet, the primacy of the development plan in land use and development planning contexts has prompted a search for greater consistency and transparency in the planning process. This has stimulated a particular interest in policy formulation in Scotland that has wider relevance for land use policy theorists and practitioners elsewhere. This paper is directly concerned with the practicalities of formulating local land use policies that work in practice. This has implications for the reform of planning systems more widely (Dixon, 2003; Campbell, 2003), and specifically addresses ...