Council’s time for planning

Time over decisions

South Lanarkshire Council spent an average of just over 10 weeks to decide on planning applications in Rutherglen and Cambuslang in the last financial year.

Figures released by the Scottish Government last week show the authority dealt with 1,375 planning decisions during 2015/16 - the seventh highest figure in Scotland.

Of those, a decision was made in under two months on 72.8 per cent of occasions, just below the Scottish average of 73.4 per cent.

Both figures marked improvement in the region since 2013/ 14 when the average time to make a decision was over 13 weeks and just 67.3 per cent of decisions were made in under two months.

In Glasgow the average wait was 10.6 weeks with 63.9 per cent of the 1,565 applications dealt with in under two months.

S ou t h L a na r k s h i re Council head of planning and economic development Pauline Elliott said there needed to be a balance between speed and quality of decision making.

She added: “Like all democratic and inclusive processes this can take time – especially on large and complex applications such as housing schemes where factors such as roads, drainage, design, and statutory public consultation are all part of the consideration - and the council as planning authority also has to wait for comments from other statutory consultees such as SEPA before reaching a decision.

“Ultimately, a slightly longer process is worthwhile - especially since a development is something with which communities have to live for many years.“