The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) has welcomed the government’s response to its report on Environmental Planning, but has called for more action on several key recommendations made in the report.
The report, published in March 2002, proposed a more coherent and effective planning system, capable of bringing together economic and social considerations and environmental constrains, with strong links between local planning authorities and the specialist agencies responsible for controlling pollution and protecting the natural environment.
RCEP chairman Sir Tom Blundell acknowledged that the government has accepted and acted upon many of the report’s recommendations, exemplified by the differences between the planning green paper prior to the report’s publication and the legislation now before parliament. However, he urged the government to continue to review the issues of public awareness, integrated spatial strategies and environmental tribunals.
He said: “We regard their responses to our recommendations for wider availability and better use of public information to be weak.
“We cautiously welcome the government’s proposals for regional spatial strategies. We remain convinced that this is a significant step towards our recommendations for full and long-term integration of environmental planning with other forms of land-use planning. We fear that our warnings about the need for a more coherent approach to planning may not yet have been heeded. This was a matter of some considerable concern in our report, and we urge the government to keep the concept of integrated spatial strategies under review.
“While we note that the government has not yet accepted the case for environmental tribunals, we are encouraged that recent research findings, which clearly set out the case for environmental tribunals, are being considered by the government and that there will be further discussion.”
References: PLS News 17/7/03
