Concerns about the fairness of the Pre-Application Consultation (PAC) system have been raised by community council planning conveners attending a recent seminar run by their Edinburgh Association.
Spurtle understands that numerous problems concerning principle and procedure were raised with Nancy Jamieson, City of Edinburgh Council’s Principal Planner.
Two examples will serve. First, an objection from a community council is not given the weight it merits as the considered response of an organisation representing many locals. It counts only as one objection.
Second, developers are quite at liberty to ignore suggestions made at the PAC stage or to go forward with very different and unscrutinised plans later.
The New Town and Broughton Community Council's planning convener John Knight cited such difficulties arising from revised plans put forward by Springfield Properties Ltd for new housing off Beaverhall Road (Breaking news, 2.11.11; Issue 202).
Jamieson promised to consult Scottish Government planners to see if similar problems have arisen elsewhere. She also undertook to raise these issues with developers at a newly established Edinburgh Development Forum.
Commenting earlier this month, Knight remarked: ‘All community councils represented at the seminar made it patently clear that we were anxious to make the PAC work – we simply sought a more level playing field’.