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No.60 July 2004 | Contex HOME FROM THE CHAIR ROSE BAILLIE The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 has just received Royal Assent. No, don’t turn off, this is important stuff. This wide-ranging measure has the key objectives of speeding up and simplifying planning decisions. Its implementation will have major effects at national, regional and local level. Anyone concerned with the historic environment (ie.archaeology and historic buildings) will need to get familiar with new procedures and learn to respond swiftly when consulted on planning proposals, or want if they want to lodge objections. At a regional level, the GLA has a ‘London Plan’ that is the planning strategy for London, in which the historic environment is now at least partially acknowledged, thanks to representations by various archaeological bodies At borough level we will have ‘Local Development Frameworks’, which replace Unitary Development Plans. The fundamental planning policies in them will affect how the historic environment is managed locally. The LDF for each borough must take account of the ‘London Plan’, and also of the local ‘Community Strategy’. Your borough’s ‘Community Strategy’ can be obtained from the Town Hall. It will almost certainly be a rather bland document containing an aspiration to preserve and enhance the ‘environment’. It will rarely refer to the ‘historic environment’. Fear not. At a recent meeting of the LAF, Bob Whytehead of English Heritage (GLAAS) had two important pieces of advice. Firstly, any protests to Local Authorities regarding proposed developments can freely interpret ‘environment’ to mean ‘historic environment’. Secondly, if you feel that the historic environment is inadequately recognised in your local ‘Community Strategy’, then lobby for its inclusion. These documents are expected to undergo relatively frequent updating and Councillors are often quite responsive to voter pressure.
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