Mr. Philip Jones:

The key thing we need to be aware of is that with SDZs and now UDZs there is no possibility of planning application objection, once the SDZ scheme is adopted. That is it. There is no right of appeal by a developer but equally there is no right of appeal by a resident. It is so important that they are involved at that first stage, and not just, as I mentioned, that the scheme needs to be clear about what is allowed and what is not. The public needs to be given a fair opportunity to express its views because that is the only opportunity available. None of us wants a member of the public to be taking a judicial review after that because they were not given a fair opportunity. Section 171AL is talking about 16 weeks to do an appeal on an SDZ. From my experience and that of all of our members, that is so unrealistic as to be laughable. We have suggested that 26 weeks would be about the tightest timeframe possible and that is without an oral hearing. The section then goes on to propose 14 weeks, that the board can, at its discretion hold an oral hearing, which is right. However, it then goes on to say that before deciding on an oral hearing for an application

...the Board shall have regard to the necessity of an oral hearing given the limits of its powers and shall only hold an oral hearing if it decides with regard to particular circumstances that there is a compelling case for such a hearing.

We suggest that the entire subsection be removed. Leave it up to the board without limitation to decide on an oral hearing. It would be very unfair if all a person can do is write in, not hear in detail, as they would at an oral hearing, the logic behind a scheme, and then have no right to appeal that when individual projects come in. Unfortunately, as we saw with the Bill, many of these figures seem to be taken from the air without any logic in terms of the reality on the ground.

As an inspector, I presided over three SDZs. None of them was done in less than 26 weeks and all of them had oral hearings. It does not make sense to ask people to accept that and then have no right of appeal afterwards.