Planning appeal system is an essential backstop - John McLellan

Cllr James Dalgleish is planning convener at Edinburgh City Council

Miles Briggs MSP should be cautious in calling for planning reform after the Scottish Govern-ment overturned eight Edinburgh Council decisions out of 17 which went to appeal in 2022.

From my experience, it’s a surprise the number of successful appeals wasn’t higher, given how often members of the development management committee find extreme interpretations of planning policies to justify political decisions.

Lest anyone forget, planning applications are not supposed to be determined along political lines and the meetings are not whipped, but nonetheless decisions often come down to who is for or against development in a particular location no matter what the policy or impact might be.

Like the recent decision to throw out the plan for a swimming business in Sighthill, perfectly reasonable applications with few objections are regularly rejected.

Appellants almost always win when policy has not been properly followed, or if the council has dragged its feet for so long that the time allowed to make a decision has expired, and while City planning convener James Dalgleish might like to think every application is taken on its merits, I have been there and know it’s far from the truth.

Far be it for me to be a Scottish Government cheerleader, but the appeal system is an essential backstop to bad local decisions, and if change is needed it’s to stop councils approving applications in which they have an interest.

But if applications could only be decided at a very local level with no recourse to appeal, it would enshrine NIMBYism in law.