The government has dropped controversial plans to allow parliament to make planning decisions on major infrastructure projects such as airports.

The planning system is crying out for change

Lord Rooker

But it has confirmed that county structure plans are to be scrapped.

Planning Minister Jeff Rooker the government wanted to speed up planning procedures but not to snuff out public consultation.

Speaking at the launch of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill, Mr Rooker said he wanted to "change the culture of planning".

The idea of parliament deciding on major infrastructure projects was dropped as impractical.

Two-tier system

It was designed to avoid long-drawn out and costly planning appeals of the kind generated by Heathrow's Terminal Five.

These confusing Treasury-led proposals are bad for democracy and bad for the environment

Friends of the Earth

But ministers feared it would be too difficult to find impartial MPs with no specific interests or links to a particular project, who would still be prepared to spend large amounts of time in committee considering the matter.

Instead, inquiries are to be speeded up by allowing inspectors to appoint sub-inspectors to work simultaneously on specific aspects of a proposal.

Proposals are currently on the table for a new airport at Cliffe, in Kent, three new runways as Stansted and an extra runway at Gatwick.

Structure plans

The Bill will set up a two-tier system of local and regional plans.

Counties will only be responsible for waste plans and plans for mining and quarrying.

It will also allow regions to set up new Business Planning Zones - businesses would have to meet strict guidelines, but could then develop without the need for further planning permission.

The bill will also reform the compulsory purchase system, raising the level of compensation payments for businesses.

Clarity

It is due to get its second Reading some time before Christmas, but no date has been set.

Other proposals include:

• preventing repeat applications and twin tracking, where the same application is submitted twice
• Stopping developers from being able to sit on planning permission for years by cutting planning permission from five to three years
• Abolishing automatic renewal

Presenting the Bill, Lord Rooker said: "The planning system is crying out for change.

"Too many councils fail to meet their decision-making targets.

"Their plans are out of date and no longer reflect the realities many communities face.

"The lack of clarity in the system makes the outcome of decision making unclear and that hurts business."

Reforms attacked

But the government's proposals came in for criticism from green pressure groups.

Friends of the Earth's Planning Advisor, Hugh Ellis, said: "Reforming the planning system was a golden opportunity to create a fair and efficient framework for all participants.

"But these confusing Treasury-led proposals are bad for democracy and bad for the environment."

Henry Oliver, Head of Planning at the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), said: "Decisions on issues like housing numbers over most of rural England will no longer be so open or accountable, depriving communities of a say over the future of their countryside and local areas.

"The contrast with the government's proposals to bring power closer to communities in the Local Government Bill is startling.

"Structure planning at the county level has secured a degree of public consensus over contentious issues like planning for housing over many years."

He said county plans had "brought benefits for the beauty and tranquility of the English countryside from Devon to Norfolk and from Sussex to County Durham, as well as for the communities who value it".

There was a danger that large areas of the countryside would be "at risk from centralised, unaccountable planning by diktat", he added.