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This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

Environmental organisations have written to the government expressing concern over proposed changes to national planning policy.

In the letter to planning minister Greg Clark, representatives from organisations including the Environmental Industries Commission and Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, express concern over any withdrawal of planning policy statement 23 (PPS23).

The environmental specialists say PPS23, which covers planning and pollution control, has played a ‘critically important and positive role’ in the regeneration of brownfield sites.

The letter strongly recommends retaining key elements of PPS23 in any new guidance, to avoiding risking ‘a return to the unplanned (and potentially unsafe) redevelopment of brownfield sites that took place up until the relatively recent past’.

The government plans to reform national planning policy with a consolidated national planning framework, covering all forms of development and setting out ‘national economic, environmental and social priorities’.

But the letter’s signatories argue that PPS23 has provided ‘clarity’ and ‘a welcome model approach’.

Other recommendations include:

• Retaining a ‘clear and unequivocal statement’ that contamination is a material planning consideration
• Drawing attention to the opportunities presented by redevelopment to mitigate the risks posed by land affected by contamination
• Advising the local planning authority to always consult their contaminated land officers on brownfield redevelopment sites
• Stressing that it is the developer’s responsibility to carry out the necessary investigation, assessment and remediation.