Gov’t Looking to Town and Country Bill This Fiscal Year

The government is looking to pass the Town and Country Planning Bill this fiscal year, which will give local planning authorities full responsibility for development control and enforcement.
Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Hon. Daryl Vaz, making his contribution to the 2010/11 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives today (July 27), said that the legislation is now in its drafting stages.
He informed that already, “a stakeholder committee has reviewed the comments of the Attorney General and we will now be reviewing other pieces of legislation to assess their impact on the proposed Bill, as well as research new provisions and features in other planning jurisdictions.”
The Bill allows for the creation of an appropriate legal and institutional framework to enable Government to formulate avant-garde policies and plans regarding land use, physical planning and development control, as well as to ensure that they are standardised throughout the country.
“The Bill also seeks to eliminate overlaps and unnecessary procedures by creating streamlined processes for administering planning and regulatory functions,” Mr. Vaz said.
Other objectives of the Bill include: establishing a more flexible type of forward planning rather than the prescriptive one, which presently obtains in development orders; mandating public involvement and input at all levels of the planning process; and making the Minister accountable for guiding the planning process.