Today's the day.....

From today the Development Management Regulations come fully into force in Scotland - this legislation applies to all proposed National and Major developments.

Over the last few months we having been working with planning authorities and developers to apply the pre-application consultation elements of the legislation to a number of planning applications.

The responses that we have received from Planning Authorities have been:
- Inconsistent;
- Late;
- Surprising!

In one instance the Planning Authority advised that any consultation undertaken before the Proposal for Application Notice was submitted would be ignored by the Planning Authority.

Our main recommendation is that you should start the pre-application process process as early as possible. Many people that we have spoken to have read the legislation which details the requirement for a 'Proposal of Application Notice' and have decided to wait until 12 weeks before they are due to submit their planning application and then submit the notice. Our experience suggests that this is far too late and the result is that additional consultation requirements, if they are required by the Planning Authority, could lead to a delay in your planning submission.

We would recommend submitting the 'Proposal of Application Notice' before undertaking any consultation with the community.

If you have any questions about the new legislation or Public and Stakeholder Engagement please do not hesitate to give us a call.