Development Management is the new term used throughout Scotland to describe the processing of applications for planning permission (granting or refusing planning permission) as well as enforcement action taken to remedy unauthorised development. Previously these planning processes were known as 'development control'.
This is a new approach to planning in which the underlying objective is to promote sustainable and high quality new development, and to manage the development process with this end in mind. The primary role of planning should not be to stop development happening - it should be to foster the right development in the right places.
The process of implementation of the 2006 Planning Act is firmly under way and possibly the most significant set of these regulations deal with Development Management – the handling of planning applications.
The new procedures, which will take effect in the course of this year, are set out both in the Act and in a set of regulations entitled The Town & Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2008. Major changes in the way we process and determine applications and how you can appeal against the decision on application came into effect on 03 August 2009.