Policy instruments (3) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 234

usually - approve it subject to specified conditions being met. (Legal enforcement
action may be taken against development which does not conform with a planning
permission.) A developer who is aggrieved by an authority's decision and who believes
he has grounds for challenging it may appeal to the Secretary of State (DCLG), but at
the risk of having costs awarded against him in the event of the appeal being dismissed.
This is a bald statement of the legal position but in practice, in connection with
a development of any significance, there will usually be a period of discussion and
negotiation prior to the submission of an application between the applicant, the
planning authority and other interested parties such as the highway authority. This
is to ensure that all relevant information necessary to determining the application is
available and that, as far as possible, objections raised have been overcome. This can be
achieved by modifications to its original content or design and/or by a legal agreement
on the part of the developer to undertake or pay for certain complementary 'off-site'
measures (technically termed 'planning obligations' but more commonly referred to as
'section 106 agreements'). Alterations to the layout or management of the highway
network or other elements of the transport system in the vicinity of a development are
a common component of these obligations. A separate legal mechanism - section 278
of the 1980 Highways Act introduced previously - continues to be available for the
private funding of works on the strategic road network (DfT 2006b).
What constitutes 'development' in this context is defined in the 1990 Town and
Country Planning Act. In essence it consists of physical development and/or of
material changes of use to land or buildings. Hence the conversion of a house into
flats or a warehouse into offices constitutes development even if there is no external
change in the building itself.
Many small-scale or otherwise uncontroversial changes which would otherwise
require planning permission are excluded by means of a General Permitted
Development Order. Likewise a Use Classes Order allocates various types of land
use into classes such that changes within a particular class do not require planning
permission - between different varieties of shop for example (but not between shops,
banks, restaurants and takeaways). For a fuller guide on these and the development
control system more generally see Chapter 5 of Cullingworth and Nadin (2006).
By law, decisions on individual planning applications have to be made in
accordance with the prevailing development plan, unless material considerations
indicate otherwise. Hence strategic issues on whether significant new or additional
development is appropriate in any area, and if so of what type and density, will
normally have been debated and resolved through the development plan process (see
Chapter 19). In particular, in line with PPG13 (DETR 2001) the spatial patterning
of development should have been framed with the objective of 'reducing the need to
travel' and facilitating the use of modes other than the car.
To assist authorities and other interested parties in understanding the basis on which
an individual application (other than a change of use) has been prepared, applicants
may be required to submit a 'design and access statement'. The access component of
this refers to access to the development (i.e. not within buildings). It should explain
how relevant development plan policies have been addressed and how the proposal
ensures that all users will have convenient and equal access to buildings and spaces
and to the public transport network (DCLG 2006a).
Nevertheless with the exception of designated areas where explicit constraints
apply (e.g. conservation areas, Green Belts, National Parks) the policy statements in
development plans deliberately allow for a degree of flexibility. This reflects the fact that