§ Mr. Allan StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the future of neighbour notification of planning applications following the deletion of domestic subjects from the valuation roll.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe Government are committed to maintaining the neighbour notification arrangements in Scotland, but the present procedure provided for in the Town and Country Planning (General Development) (Scotland) Order 1981 requires to be changed. Developers are currently required to serve a notice on the named owners, occupiers and lessees of neighbouring land as listed in the valuation roll, informing them that a planning application for a proposed development has been submitted, that a copy of the application and plans may be inspected at the address of the planning authority and that they have 14 days to make representations to the authority. These procedures will remain for all but domestic property.
With the introduction of the community charge entries for domestic property on the valuation roll will no longer be updated. It is therefore necessary to adopt a different approach to identifying those neighbours on whom notification of a planning application must be served. We propose to replace the existing arrangements with a requirement to notify two categories of neighbours. These would be firstly those listed in the parts of the community charges register which a member of the public may inspect 650W in respect of the address of the neighbouring property and, secondly, the owner of the neighbouring property. Notification of the owner will be by means of a notice addressed to "the owner" at the address of the neighbouring property. Those receiving the notification would have the same opportunity as at present to make representations to the planning authority about the application. The Scottish Development Department is currently undertaking a complete revision and updating of the General Development Order and the neighbour notification procedure will be altered as part of that revision during next year. In the meantime the valuation roll remains available for consultation.
The introduction of these changes to the notification procedures will ensure that owners and occupiers of property continue to receive notification of planning applications affecting neighbouring property and that the task of undertaking neighbour notification does not place an undue burden on developers.