The Democratic Deficit in the English Planning System

I have just got back from the Planning Summer School for Elected Members run by the RTPI. It is the 2nd year that I have attended and I find it very useful to get an awareness of best practice around the Country.

One of the final sessions I attended was a debate comparing the different planning systems in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The biggest issues that came out of that debate, for me, was the way that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland not only have the ability to decide and interpret policy locally - which we have in England to a limited extent, but also to actually make their own decisions about how their planning system is structured and operating.

That sort of local flexibility is severely lacking in England at the moment and is another example of the hypocrisy that devolution has created.