The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 (“the 2015 Order”) came into force on 15 April 2015. It consolidates and amends, in relation to England, the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2010 (“the 2010 Order”), which had already been amended some fifteen times previously. Importantly, Article 47 of the 2015 Order preserves certain of the provisions of the 2010 Order in relation to planning applications made before 15 April 2015. (They relate principally to publicity, consultations, and notice of determination.)
The 2015 Order makes a number of main changes to the 2010 Order, in addition to minor and drafting amendments. Space permits only reference to what are possibly the two most important here. Each was subject to public consultation in 2014.
Article 35 of the 2015 Order imposes a new obligation on a local planning authority (“LPA”) to provide written reasons in a decision notice for imposing planning conditions that require specific matters to be approved before development can commence. (This is in addition to the general obligation to provide reasons for imposing conditions.) The underlying purpose is to reduce delays to the start of a development by prompting the LPA to consider whether pre-commencement conditions are, in fact, appropriate.
Articles 28, 29 and 30 – together with Schedule 6 – introduce the concept of deemed discharge of a pre-commencement condition in the event of delay on the part of the LPA in determining an application for approval under one. By way of background, it has been estimated that over a third of such applications are not determined (discharged) within the determination period allowed. This also leads to delay to the start of a development. The 2015 Order now sets out a procedure under which an applicant can opt to treat its application as approved, if the LPA has not determined it within the determination period.
However, it should be noted that this procedure is not available in relation to a wide range of types of conditions that are expressly exempted by the 2015 Order. These include, for instance, certain conditions relating to (a) EIA developments (b) flood risk management (c) sites of special scientific interest (d) contaminated land (e) investigation of archaeological potential (f) highways (g) approval of reserved matters and (h) planning obligations. (Apparently, the government later increased the list of exemptions proposed in its public consultation on the basis of responses received.)
John Martin
