No trust in system

The Achilles heel of Scotland’s planning system has long been its inability to build and sustain a positive relationship with communities. As part of the most recent consultation on how the planning system could be improved, Scottish Government commissioned new research into why this relationship with communities is so problematic and what, if anything, can be done to improve it. Curiously, and rather unhelpfully for those who wanted to respond to the consultation, the report wasn’t published until long after the consultation ended. To distil the report’s 130+ pages, the key issue is one of trust.