Labour aim to give communities the right of appeal on planning

Scottish Labour say they will look to give communities across the country the right to appeal controversial planning decisions in the coming Holyrood session.

The party said it would ''level the playing field'' by lodging amendments to the Scottish Government's Planning Bill.

In May MSPs backed the general principles of the legislation despite significant reservations across the Holyrood chamber.

The parliament's Local Government and Communities Committee said the proposed planning shake-up does not go far enough to tackle community frustrations with the system.

However Local Government Minister Kevin Stewart has so far resisted calls to give communities an equal right of appeal on decisions, arguing it would increase conflict and mistrust in the system.

Labour said its research identified 500 occasions in the last five years on which the government had overturned the decision of a local council in favour of developers.

The party's communities spokeswoman Monica Lennon, a qualified town planner, said: ''It's not right that communities have zero rights to challenge planning decisions about the future of their areas yet developers have a direct line to the Scottish Government.

Scottish Labour's plan will give communities more rights and create a fairer planning system.

As a former planner, I don't need to be convinced of the importance of a well-resourced planning system that listens to communities and its role in delivering homes, jobs and a high quality environment.

The SNP government's Planning Bill is timid and won't deliver real change in our economy and communities.''

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ''The changes set out in our Planning Bill are designed to involve people more meaningfully and at a much earlier stage of the planning process, rather than add more appeals, more conflict and more delay at the end.''