Amendment to the Town & Country Planning Act

Overview

The Isle of Man government conducted a consultation on town planning issues from October 2017 to January 2018. This was a wide-ranging consultation, seeking input from the public about many different aspects of the current legislation, issues of concern and potential legislative changes.

The government considered all the responses received and then published an action plan to improve the planning system in May 2018.

Implementing this action plan requires legislative amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act 1999.

Why your views matter

One of the actionable objectives of the Programme for Government is to improve the planning system, published in May 2018, which sets out a series of things to be done by Government. The first of these is to bring forward amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act 1999.

The amendments outlined in the action plan are:

1. New powers for the subsequent introduction of National Policy Directives which, with Tynwald approval, could override the Development Plan to better meet our needs.
2. A new Community Infrastructure Levy taking effect in early 2020.
3. The powers to introduce a method for faster minor amendments to existing planning approvals by the end of 2019.
4. Introduce a definition of ‘General Importance to the Island’’ as set out in Section 11(1)(a) of the Act.
5. Discretionary powers for the Cabinet Office to appoint a planning advisory body under Section 40 of the Act.
6. Explicitly define the statutory basis for Planning Committee(s) and their decisions

Please refer to the Action Plan to Improve the Planning System for the full outline of these and future actions.

We now seek your views on these proposed amendments.

What happens next

We are reviewing all of the responses and will provide a summary of what action or changes will be made as a result of this consultation.