Member

Notwithstanding the requirement in the Bill for training of councillors, somebody in a local planning authority has to be an authoritative source of advice on not just planning law and guidance but all these new national development management policies as they emerge, so it is important to have somebody in whom confidence can be placed to deliver this. It is even more important as we go into this new territory of spatial development strategies, many of which may well be conducted by authorities that do not presently have the responsibility of a local planning authority, that where they become strategic planning authorities, they are able to draw on chief planners in order to be able to assure themselves that they are getting their planning law and their consistency of planning advice right.