Committee – Planning Edinburgh

City Plan 2030 – next steps

Front Cover of City Plan 2030 - A view accross Edinburgh on a sunny day from the Crags.

City Plan 2030 has taken another significant step forward after agreement by the Councillors on the Planning Committee on Wednesday 30 November.

The proposed Plan was presented to Councillors at Planning Committee to decide on whether to submit the plan to Scottish Ministers for examination.

Councillors from across the political groups voted unanimously in favour of submitting the plan and congratulated planning officers and all those who contributed to the plan by concluding the session with a rare committee occurrence of a round of applause.

Councillors gave praise to the quality of the plan and commended the scale of the work that had been undertaken to produce such an ambitious document. Councillors recognised the capability of the plan to usher in a sustainable and modern future for Edinburgh, with comments of support from across the board over the need to progress the plan and see it adopted.

Watch a recording of the planning committee session here.

Planning officers have now officially submitted their request for examination to the Scottish Ministers and the submission package includes:

The Proposed City Plan 2030
Representations to the plan
Schedule 4 Reports (the Council’s response to the representations)
Supporting documents submitted with representations
Supporting documents to the proposed plan (appendices, maps etc.)

A Scottish Government reporter will then begin the process of reviewing the plan and schedule 4 reports and evaluating the responses from the Council. This process is expected to take close to a year.

City Plan 2030 has taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage, and we’re looking forward to bringing the plan to adoption.

City Plan is ambitious. It aims to ensure that the planning of housing, employment and services addresses the need for net-zero development, resilience to climate change, quality places and green spaces; to deliver community infrastructure and job opportunities where people live and to embed a 20-minute neighbourhood principle at the heart of all places in Edinburgh. City Plan 2030 will help to transform Edinburgh into a truly modern, vibrant, and sustainable place that is befitting of a capital city.

City Plan 2030 Team.

REMINDER: Planning and Building Standards systems upgrade 8-12 August

Next week an upgrade of Planning and Building Standards systems is planned from Monday 8 August – Friday 12 August.

The means the Planning and Building Standards Portal will be unavailable during this time.

The weekly list of planning applications will not be issued on the week beginning Monday 8 August and you will be unable to view and comment on applications.

Relevant applications will have additional time added for comments to be made to take account of the downtime.

A temporary webpage is now in place and has the planning documents for the Local Review Body and the Development Management Sub Committee, both on Wednesday 10 August;

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/pbsupgrade

During this time, you will be unable to view enforcement cases or the enforcement register. Enforcement enquires can still be made using the online form.

Planning and building warrant applications can continue to be submitted online through eDevelopment.

You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter @planningedin or subscribing to the Planning Blog.

Planning and Building Standards systems upgrade 8-12 August

An upgrade of Planning and Building Standards systems is planned for the period from Monday 8 August – Friday 12 August.

The upgrade will result in a number of improvements including security fixes, enhanced accessibility, an online measuring tool, and will add Local Review Body information.

The process to upgrade our systems will have an impact on the delivery of the service and the Planning and Building Standards Portal, which includes the Building Standards Register, will be unavailable during this time.

The weekly list of planning applications will not be issued on the week beginning Monday 8 August and you will be unable to view and comment on applications.

Relevant applications will have additional time added for comments to be made to take account of the downtime.

Arrangements are being put in place to ensure information will be available for the forthcoming Local Review Body and Development Management Sub Committees.

During this time, you will be unable to view enforcement cases or the enforcement register. Enforcement enquires can still be made using the online form.

Planning and building warrant applications can continue to be submitted online through eDevelopment.

You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter @planningedin or subscribing to the Planning Blog

Changes Coming Soon to Planning

As part of our efforts to improve our service and adapt for the future, there are two changes to the Planning Service coming soon:

Pre-Application Advice Service

At its meeting in February 2021, Planning Committee approved minor changes to our Pre-Application Advice Service.

It was recognised that the service is working well since it was introduced in 2019, but experience has highlighted the need for an additional option for a site visit for local developments. This will be available from 1 April 2021.

The Planning Committee also agreed a 5% increase in all Pre-Application Advice Service charges received on or after 1 April 2021, in line with the Council’s budget projections for 2021/2022.

Non-Material Variation Applications

At its meeting in February 2021, Planning Committee also agreed to additional discretionary charges for the processing of Non-Material Variation applications.

This will improve customer service and consistency across the service.

Details regarding procedures are being finalised in advance going live on 1 April 2021, but it is anticipated that Non-Material Variation applications will be required to be submitted using a standardised form, accompanied by the relevant drawings and the appropriate fee.

This process will only apply to granted planning applications and will not be applicable to Listed Building Consents, Conservation Area Consents or Advert Consents.

Full details can be found in the Planning Committee report. Further communications regarding both of these matters will be published in advance of the changes commencing on 1 April 2021.

Planning and Building Standards Service COVID -19 Update (22 May 2020)

virtual dmsub west craigs masterplan — Presentation on a masterplan for housing at West Craigs at the most recent virtual Development Management Sub-committee

This is our latest update to the continuing changes to the planning service as we adapt to the restrictions needed during the COVID -19 outbreak.

Development Management Sub-Committee

This week saw our first ‘virtual’ meeting of the Development Management Sub-Committee. The meeting was webcast live and went pretty smoothly thanks to a lot of preparation by all concerned.

We’ve learned that it takes a lot more resource than traditional meetings in the City Chambers. Behind-the-screens work included having back-up planners on stand-by in case of IT issues, and partners/children/pets being banished from the house, or at least the wi-fi router.

The meeting allowed several important cases to be discussed by the elected members in the sub-committee. These include some key sites in the current Local Development Plan reaching significant milestones.

virtual dm sub floating heads — Discussion with councillors at the most recent virtual Development Management Sub-committee

We intend to hold virtual sub-committees on a regular basis from here on, which will allow us to make and issue decisions to support economic renewal and a positive future for the city.

Extended duration of Listed Building and Conservation Area Consents

The Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill has passed through the parliament and will soon become an Act. The Bill makes changes to some of the duties of public bodies. These changes will allow essential public services to continue to be delivered and support businesses and individuals in Scotland.

The Act will extend the duration of a listed building consent or a conservation area consent that would otherwise lapse during the emergency period because the works have not begun. The emergency period is the period beginning with the Act coming into force and ending on 6 October 2020.

Consents to which this applies will instead lapse at the end of an extended period which ends on 6 April 2021 unless works have begun before the end of the extended period.

Planning reform

Despite the restrictions around Coronavirus, work is still progressing on the implementation of the work programme for the Planning (Scotland) Act, which seeks to make changes to the Scottish planning system as part of a wider review of the system.

Two new provisions of the Planning (Scotland) Act are now in place. The first introduces a statutory requirement for certain types of development to include accessible toilet facilities which meet specific technical standards. Details of the standards and type of development this applies to can be found here, and this will now apply to these types of developments in Edinburgh as well as across Scotland.

The second introduces a power for planning authorities to designate parts of their council areas as short-term let control areas, as a further means of controlling where short-term lets may be permitted. There will need to further Council-wide discussions before we consider the use of this power. Details can be found here.

Further updates

We will continue to adapt and change our service as necessary to ensure we can continue working for the recovery of the city, such as with our previous updates to our pre-application service, weekly lists and site notices.

Please subscribe to the blog by email to receive further updates as soon as they are posted to stay up-to-date.