Section 5: Planning
17.This section enables the Secretary of State by order to appoint the ODA as the local planning authority for an area specified in that order. It does so by adopting the model provided for urban development corporations, set out in section 149 of, and Schedule 29 to, the Local Government and Land Act 1980.
18.Subsection (4) provides that the Mayor of London may direct the ODA to refuse an application for planning permission in a specified case. The cases in which the Mayor can direct refusal are set out in the Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2000, made under section 74 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
19.In discharging its functions as a local planning authority, Subsection (5) requires the ODA to have regard to the need to prepare properly for the 2012 Games and, in that preparation, to seek to maximise the benefits to be derived from the preparations for the Olympics over the longer-term. The ODA should also have regard to the existing framework of plans, in particular any planning permissions already granted in connection with the London Olympics, any guidance issued by the Secretary of State and to the development plan for any area for which the ODA is made the local planning authority.
20.Subsection (6) includes provision for the Secretary of State, in making an order which revokes a previous order establishing the ODA as a local planning authority, to specify which authority is to become the local planning authority in place of the ODA.
21.Given that the ODA will in most cases be the applicant for planning permission, the ODA’s development control powers will be exercised by a separate committee. Provision for the formation of committees within the ODA is made in Schedule 1Paragraph 10. In order to avoid any conflict of interests, anyone who is involved in the exercise of the ODA’s functions in relation to land may not participate in deliberations or decisions of the ODA acting as a local planning authority in relation to that land (Schedule 1Paragraph 20).
