Councillors in Aberdeenshire have urged Local Government and Planning Minister Kevin Stewart to consider a radical change to planning appeals.
Speaking at the Scottish Liberal Democrat autumn conference, Aboyne councillor Peter Argyle set out how he believes the planning system could be reformed in the white paper coming to Holyrood next year.
Mr Argyle said third party appeals should simply be considered on whether councillors had acted reasonably in their decision-making, instead of the current system where a government reporter or minister reconsiders the whole application from the start.
He said: “For a long time there have been calls for a third party right of appeal.
“This has always been rejected because it’s impossible to find a way putting that into the planning system as it stands.
“What I’m proposing is, rather than try to fit that right of appeal into a very complex system, is to make the system simpler.
“Rather than reporters going right back to the beginning and looking at everything all over again, they should simply look at whether the decision was reasonable.”
Karen Clark, Aberdeenshire’s Liberal Democrat group leader, backed the call.
She said: “Underpinning this is idea is the objective to give people a voice and restore trust in a system that is failing communities at the moment.”
The plan was backed almost unanimously by Lib Dem members at the conference and MSPs will now push for the change at Holyrood.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Last year we commissioned an independent panel to review the planning system, and they were not persuaded by the case for Third Party Rights of Appeal.
“As confirmed in our response to the independent review, we agree with the panel and believe that much more can be achieved by involving people in a positive way at an earlier stage in the planning process.
“We are currently working with local authorities, developers and community groups to develop more detailed proposals for reform, which will be fully consulted in the next few months.”
“This will pave the way for a new planning bill to be brought forward to the Scottish Parliament in 2017.”
