Legislation - Planning

Principal legislation enforced

Planning & Compulsory Act 2004    

The Act provides outline powers and much of the detail will be in the subordinate legislation. The first commencement orders have started to bring the Act into force in both England and Wales; as have some of the regulations.

Town & Country Planning (Transitional Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2004   

Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 changes the local development planning system in England. These Regulations are made under Schedule 8 to the Act and make transitional arrangements that will apply as the changes are brought into effect.

Town & Country Planning Act 1990. 
This was the principal Act, and deals with the main substance of planning matters including the preparation of development plans, the control of development and enforcement. In addition, the Act concerns itself with special controls over trees, advertisement and untidy land as well as a variety of general provisions on matters of compensation, acquisition and highways.  Many of the matters dealt with by this Act are have been superceded by the Planning & Compulsory Act 2004.  

Planning (Listed Buildings & Conservation Areas) Act 1990. 
This Act deals with all matters relating to listed building and conservation areas including relevant applications, statutory duties of both owners and the Council, repairs and acquisition of listed buildings etc..

Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990. 
This Act identifies when an application is necessary for the storage of hazardous substances. The purpose of the Act is to ensure that such substances are only kept or used in significant amounts after a risk assessment has been undertaken.

Planning & Compensation Act 1991. 
This Act amends those cited above but also introduces a number of additional controls relating notably to enforcement matters. A particularly important provision is that planning applications should be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations dictate otherwise.

Subordinate legislation enforced

The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2005

This statutory instrument contains amendments to the 1987 Use Classes Order and expands the Class A3 (Food & Drink establishments) into a new A3 (Restaurants/Cafes), A4 (Drinking Establishments) and A5 (Hot Food Takeaways).

The Town & Country Planning Act (Use Classes) Order 1987 
The Order contains a number of different classes of use and provides that a change of use within the same class does not require planning permission but that a change of use from one class to another is likely to require planning permission. Not every use is classified by the Order - some are expressly excluded whilst others are not contained within any class and any change from that use will probably require planning permission.

The Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 
The General Development Order grants planning permission for 33 Classes of development. Many of these Classes are subdivided into several components with the result that many small scale developments are expressly permitted by the order.

The Town & Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992 
The Regulations define which forms of advertisements are subject to control and thus require "express consent" and which advertisements enjoy "deemed consent". Powers are also included to discontinue advertisements and to take legal action where appropriate.