Ms Kathryn Meghen:

We agree with the need to strengthen the preplanning phase. There are many issues around SHDs but one of the measures our members found to be beneficial was meeting the cross-disciplinary group at an early stage instead of individual conversations taking place that can end up conflicting with one another. Where there is extensive engagement at preplanning, a huge amount of time and effort is put into designing and preparing for that detailed discussion. Sometimes it then has no consequence and the planning decision is totally different. As Ms Sheridan has said, it is about clarity and certainty. We must start bringing it in. There is far too much focus on legal challenges now. It is understandable that is happening but we need a system that moves away from that.