Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

1. What steps his Department has taken to make the planning system more accessible to local people.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

2. What steps his Department has taken to make the planning system more accessible to local people.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Nick Boles)]

For the first time ever, people who are not councillors or planning officers can get involved in drawing up a plan for their community that has full statutory weight. More than 540 communities have been designated as neighbourhood planning areas and a further 210 have applied.

[Julian Smith]

Constituents in Skipton, the gateway to the Yorkshire dales, continue to be frustrated about the overturning in Bristol of planning decisions have been taken locally in Craven. What advice can the Minister give to my constituents?

[Nick Boles]

The best defence and the way to guarantee that the local authority representing local people is in the driving seat is for that local authority to get on and complete its local plan. That is sometimes a difficult process, but that is the best thing to do—to get on and complete that local plan.