Ensuring our voice is heard in planning and development

Day-to-day, we achieve this by responding to consultations on planning applications, Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), and local planning policy. We can only respond where we are aware of the consultation taking place, and, as we are – for the most part – not identified by government as a “statutory consultee”, it is not a given that we are made aware. A recent government proposal presented an opportunity to try to address this.

The government’s recent consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system outlined various proposals to “improve the functioning of the statutory consultee system to facilitate confident and timely decision making”.

We believe that there are three changes which would better enable us to support these objectives, and the conservation and enhancement of the Chilterns:

1) Making us a statutory consultee on planning applications

The government suggested six criteria for determining whether new statutory consultees should be identified. While we had some concerns about the criteria themselves, we also determined that we met them, and were eligible for identification as a statutory consultee. We have requested statutory consultee status, not least as National Parks already have this status, and we do in relation to NSIPs.

2) Clarifying Natural England’s role

Natural England is the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England, with wide-ranging responsibilities including National Landscapes. Natural England is a statutory consultee, but not in relation to National Landscape matters. When Natural England does not comment on a proposal affecting a National Landscape, this can be interpreted by local planning authorities as tacit support, which undermines the weight given to our own comments. We have suggested that Natural England responses clearly state what they are and are not intended to cover.

3) Making us a statutory consultee on local plans

The government’s consultation noted that engagement in local plan preparation could itself assist local planning authorities to make “effective decisions”. One of the actions proposed in support of this was to define some organisations as “prescribed bodies” (a form of statutory consultee) in relation to local plans, linked to a “requirement to assist with certain plan making”: we have requested that we be identified as one of these bodies.

We submitted our comments to the government’s consultation, and now await the outcome. Whilst most local planning authorities already consult us reliably, we would welcome the assurance that such engagement is guaranteed.