Ms Maria Graham:

Among the things we have been thinking about regarding the development plan is that clear and concise piece so that the focus is more on those issues. We are very conscious that a huge amount of things that go into development plans are a repetition of national policy. Then there is a debate. The Chairman spoke earlier about senior planners telling people they should not really go there, perhaps because it is a national policy. Then it goes through the whole process of the OPR to come back again. There is almost an entire debate about things that have already been debated at national level and may even have a legislative background at national level. It is how to get the plan focused on what is really the place-making, and to see what innovation it can have that people can engage with, whether it is in the statutory space or just as part of the engagement piece, whereby they can visually see it. Recently, some of our discussion is around those strategic objectives. If people are engaging, how many objectives can one have that people can engage with? Are there high-level ones that everyone feels comfortable about signing up to, and there may be policies beneath them? It is the high-level objective that is most important because as one goes through a number of years the plans and the policies may not quite align with each other. One allows that innovation as long as the main strategic objective, whether it is sustainable development or otherwise, is being met.

The Chairman made the point, and we are probably coming to this in the review, that it should be much more clear what should be in development plans and, probably by extension, what should not be in development plans. That is probably where our thinking is coming to, and how to frame that.