ARTICLE · 20 DECEMBER 2012

More Planning Act Amendments That Will And Won't Happen

Bircham Dyson Bell LLP

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Today's entry reports on further amendments proposed to the Planning Act 2008 in Parliament yesterday, with varying prospects of success.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector

Today's entry reports on further amendments proposed to the Planning Act 2008 in Parliament yesterday, with varying prospects of success.

Changes that won't happen

First, Phil Wilson, Labour MP for Sedgefield in County Durham (and thus Tony Blair's successor) introduced a bill to exempt on-shore windfarms from the Planning Act regime. In fact he is opposed to a particular windfarm proposed for his constituency - E.On's The Isles Windfarm - but his bill would return all on-shore windfarms to local authority decision-making, regardless of size and location. His speech can be found in this Hansard report starting at column 319.

You won't find this bill on the Parliament website yet, and I will say with some confidence that it won't reach the statute book. It is down to have a second reading on 1 March 2013, but in practice there won't be time for it on that day.

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