Development Management Practice Notes

The Development Management Practice Project is sponsored by the Planning Officers' Society, and is run on its behalf by POS Enterprises and Trevor Roberts Associates.

The project works with a group of 16 local authorities to address issues in development management where there is a lack of published guidance. The group examines the range of approaches across authorities to identify good practice, and this is then drawn together as a Practice Guidance Note.

The project was initially set to run from April 2007 until March 2008 and the following Practice Guidance Notes which were produced during its first year can be downloaded free of charge:

Practice Guidance Note 1: Public Speaking in Planning Committees

Practice Guidance Note 2: Pre and Post Decision Amendments

Practice Guidance Note 3: Councillor involvement in pre-application discussions

Practice Guidance Note 4: Application Validation, Registration and Digital Records

Practice Guidance Note 5: Towards Proactive Enforcement

Additional guidance notes on Environmental Impact Assessment and s106 Agreements are currently being prepared and will be available shortly.

We are pleased to report that it has now been agreed, following a successful first year, that this important action learning project should be commissioned for a second year. The project will therefore run through until January 2009. The following have been identified as possible topics for future guidance notes:

It is also hoped that before the project comes to an end there will be the opportunity to review and update the Guidance Notes already published.