Local development frameworks, community strategies and area agreements - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 310

Planning shapes the places where people work and live. The planning system
operates in the public interest to ensure the development and use of land results
in better places for people to live, the delivery of development where communities
need it, as well as the protection and enhancement of the natural and historic
environment and the countryside.
(ODPM 2005d para 40)
This aspiration is now framed in terms of 'sustainable development' which is held
to be the 'core principle' underpinning planning.
National policy statements, regional strategies and local development plans
together provide the framework for the planning and management of sustainable
development. Local planning authorities are charged with using their regulatory
powers over development in accordance with this framework - the so-called 'plan-led
system'. (Details of these powers were given in section 14.9.)
At one level therefore the purpose of the development planning system can be
considered as fundamentally unchanged and the reforms under the 2004 Act viewed
as just one more example of 'tampering' with the mechanics of the system which
successive governments have engaged in over the years. Ironically, given the claims
made for improving speed, efficiency and transparency, it is in this aspect that its likely
success is most questionable (Wood 2007).
Local communities, businesses, the voluntary sector and individuals have a right
to a high quality service that is fast, fair, open, transparent and consistent and
respects the costs, effort and commitment that has gone into engagement in plan-
making and in preparing and submitting applications. Planning authorities must
ensure that plans are kept up to date and that planning applications are dealt with
expeditiously, while addressing relevant issues.
(ODPM 2005d para 9)
This aspect is obviously important, not least because failure of the development
planning system to function efficiently in an administrative sense provides ready
ammunition to those who would wish to diminish its scope. More interesting though
are the 'softer' changes surrounding the context in which the new system is expected
to function and the culture which is intended to characterise its operation.
Simply focusing on the changed plans and procedures of the new system would
overlook the fact that pursuing 'place-shaping' involves many processes and agencies
beyond the reach of the development planning system (Morphet 2007). It is this which
accounts for the intended transition to a 'spatial planning' approach:
Spatial planning goes beyond traditional land use planning to bring together and
integrate policies for the development and use of land with other policies and
programmes which influence the nature of places and how they can function. That
will include policies which can impact on land use, for example by influencing
the demands on or needs for development, but which are not capable of being
delivered solely or mainly through the granting or refusal of planning permission
and which may be implemented by other means.
(ODPM 2005d para 30)