Telecommunications Development Order

The Town & Country Planning Act (1999) sets out a definition of ‘development’.  Things that fall within this definition must have planning approval before they can be carried out.  Planning approval can be via individual planning applications or can be a ‘blanket’ approval by secondary legislation (aka Permitted Development).  The mechanism for the latter is a Development Order produced by the Cabinet Office and approved by Tynwald.  The determination of a planning application must take into account all relevant material considerations and must not take into account anything which is not a material consideration. 

Development Orders may be appropriate where proposals are unlikely to be contentious or where relevant the material considerations are unlikely to benefit from case-by-case consideration.  Where a proposal is contentious due to non-material issues, there is unlikely to be any benefit of case-by-case consideration by way of a planning application as the process cannot legally take into account the non-material issues which make it controversial.

A Telecommunications Development Order was implemented in 2013 and a draft replacement order was published, alongside explanatory information, for an 8 week consultation, which closed on the 05.08.19. 

There were 479 responses to the consultation.  19 respondents indicated they were responding on behalf of an organisation, including 1 MHK, 4 Local Authorities, Manx Utilities, the Digital Agency, the Chamber of Commerce Digital Committee and 5G Aware IOM.

A report has been published which includes a summary of the responses and the issues they raise.  The emerging legislation will be informed accordingly.