- The Environment Agency has pledged to provide advice on permitting issues as a matter of course when it is consulted on planning applications.
- London mayor Boris Johnson has made the first appointments to his new administration, naming Richard Blakeway as deputy mayor for housing, land and property, and confirming that Sir Edward Lister will retain responsibility for planning.
- Torridge District Council and North Devon Council have appointed Kate Little to a new position of joint head of planning.
- The Labour Party has seized control of a series of key councils including Birmingham, Southampton, Plymouth and Cardiff in this week's local elections.
- Marylebone Cricket Club has announced that a new masterplan for the redevelopment of Lord's cricket ground in London is to be developed.
- With Londoners due to go to the polls tomorrow to elect their next mayor, Jamie Carpenter runs through the main candidates' planning-related policies
- Flintshire County Council has granted outline planning permission for a mixed-use scheme earmarked for a former RAF site in Deeside, North Wales.
- The civil servant who has led the government's work on the new Community Infrastructure Levy developer tariff for the last four years is now working with Roger Tym & Partners' CIL team as a consultant, the firm has announced.
- The number of planning decisions on applications for major residential developments in the final quarter of 2011 was 10 per cent lower than the same quarter in 2010, official figures show.
- Queries on the status of guidance following the release of the National Planning Policy Framework head the list of the most commonly-asked questions since its publication, the senior civil servant responsible for the framework has said.
- Developer ISIS Waterside Regeneration has submitted a detailed planning application for the first phase of a proposed development intended to create a waterside community in Brentford, west London.
- Planning minister Greg Clark has said that he will scrutinise decisions taken by inspectors after the publication of the NPPF to ensure that they are following his instructions to 'respect' decisions taken locally.
- The National Trust, English Heritage and East Northamptonshire Council have launched a joint legal challenge against a planning inspector's approval of four wind turbines within one mile of a Grade I listed building.
- The government is facing two potential legal challenges over its decision to issue a notice preventing a west London council from granting permission for other forms of development on a site earmarked for a 'supersewer' construction site.
- A government helpline set up to advise local authorities on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is not intended to help them interpret the meaning of the policies contained in the document, the government's chief planner said today.
- A district council in Cambridgeshire is set to introduce a new levy on development to raise cash for local infrastructure on 1 May after an independent examiner backed its plans.
- A conservation society in a west London borough has applied to use new powers contained in the Localism Act to be designated as a neighbourhood planning forum.
- Bath and North East Somerset Council will later this month consult on plans to charge developers of residential schemes up to £200 per square metre of floorspace through a levy to raise funds for local infrastructure.
- Scotland's transport minister has warned that further delays to the proposed Aberdeen bypass would subject people in the area to 'more years of congestion' after opponents said they would take their fight to the Supreme Court.
- Nearly nine out of ten planners believe that the government's planning reforms will lead to a 'substantial' increase in appeals over the next two years, a survey has found.
