Item6EnforcementCharterReviewPaperV2

For Decision

Title: Review of Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter

Pre­pared by: Ed Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

Pur­pose of Report

1. To seek the Plan­ning Committee’s approv­al of the Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter for adop­tion and publication.

Recom­mend­a­tion

1. That the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee approve the Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter (Appendix 1) for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Back­ground

1. Sec­tion 158A of the Plan­ning etc. (Scot­land) Act 2006 requires plan­ning author­it­ies to pre­pare an enforce­ment charter. The detailed require­ments are included with­in Cir­cu­lar 10/2009: Plan­ning Enforce­ment (Appendix 3).

2. A plan­ning author­ity must keep their Charter under review and it must be reviewed and re-pub­lished every two years. More fre­quent reviews may be required if there are changes to the plan­ning enforce­ment sys­tem or legis­la­tion that affect it. Scot­tish Min­is­ters may also require the Charter to be reviewed on a more fre­quent basis.

3. Once the Charter is agreed by Scot­tish Min­is­ters, the plan­ning author­ity is required to pub­lish the Charter on their web­site and cop­ies are to be sent for dis­play in pub­lic lib­rar­ies with­in the plan­ning author­ity area.

The Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter

1. The first Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter was ori­gin­ally approved by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in June 2009 and the Charter has been reg­u­larly reviewed there­after. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee agreed to review the Charter annu­ally as a mat­ter of good prac­tice. The cur­rent Enforce­ment Charter was approved by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in Decem­ber 2023 and sub­sequently adop­ted fol­low­ing approv­al by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. It is avail­able on the CNPA’s web­site at http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​a​r​k​-​a​u​t​h​o​r​i​t​y​/​p​l​a​nning

2. The cur­rent Enforce­ment Charter is con­sidered to remain fit for pur­pose, clearly and con­cisely explain­ing the way CNPA will carry out the plan­ning enforce­ment func­tion with­in the plan­ning ser­vice and with­in the con­text of the oth­er five loc­al plan­ning author­it­ies. There have been no rel­ev­ant legis­lat­ive or pro­ced­ur­al changes since the Charter was last reviewed in 2023. It has been used fre­quently to refer mem­bers of the pub­lic to when they make enforce­ment enquir­ies, where the Charter’s clar­ity and sim­pli­city is helpful.

3. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that the CNPA Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter be approved by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee without modi­fic­a­tion, and that it be sub­mit­ted to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters for approv­al, pri­or to form­al adop­tion and pub­lic­a­tion on the website.

Next Steps

1. Once agreed by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee, the Enforce­ment Charter will be sent to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters for approv­al. Once approved, the Charter will be pub­lished online, and cop­ies will be sent for dis­play in all the pub­lic lib­rar­ies with­in the Nation­al Park.

Appen­dices

1. Draft Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter
2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Enforce­ment Register
3. Cir­cu­lar 10/2009: Plan­ning Enforcement

Ed Swales edwardswales@​cairngorms.​co.​uk