Infrastructure commission proposal confirmed

PlanningResource, 6 November 2007

The proposed new commission would make decisions on major infrastructure schemes.

Planning bodies gave a cautious welcome to the plan, but said that communities must not be frozen out of the consultation process.

Robert Upton, secretary general of the RTPI, said: ""If we are to have an independent commission to handle major infrastructure projects, then there must be the assurance of real community engagement and consultation in both the drafting of national policy statements and each individual project application."

He said that this could only be done through the Planning Aid charity, and said he would seek talks with the DCLG to discuss resources and procedures.

A spokesman for the Campaign to Protect Rural England said: "This looks like being a developer's charter, and risks dealing a body blow to the planning system created 60 years ago by the post-war Labour government, which has done much to protect England's precious countryside."

Friends of the Earth planning coordinator, Naomi Luhde Thompson, said: "Government plans to overhaul the planning system are bad news for democracy and bad news for the environment. 

"These proposals are undemocratic, environmentally-damaging and - according to recent legal advice - likely to be unlawful."

But Stuart Andrews, planning partner at Eversheds, said: "There is an inherent commonsense in introducing a separate system to facilitate major infrastructure projects."