Planning plans

Published on 28/06/2012 00:00

I READ with interest the article by Gareth Mackie in the business section (23 June), regarding the Scottish Government’s intentions for the overhaul of the planning system.

We may rant, rave and complain about the proposals, and yet instead we should be challenging both the government and all the local authority planning departments with one simple question – by what method are the expected “improvement in service and quicker decision making” going to be accomplished?

If they can answer that question adequately and show evidence of what they are doing, then we can make progress. However, setting targets and incentivising planning departments with increased application fees will simply drive the wrong behaviours, annoy the applicants and make the performance worse, and there’s lots of evidence for that outcome.

Andy Lippok

Caiyside

Edinburgh