A REVIEW of the Planning Department recommends curtailing States Members’ rights to alter its policy.

A former chief of the UK Planning Inspectorate, Chris Shepley, said the proper way to make changes to Jersey’s planning blueprint, the Island Plan, was through thorough consultation involving the Islandwide community and not simply by a proposition to the States.

In his report released today by Environment and Public Services, Mr Shepley acknowledged that his advice would not be universally welcomed, as Members’ individual rights went to the heart of the way Jersey was governed.

Nonetheless, he said: ‘I believe they must accept that – once it (the Island Plan) has been agreed – it must remain in force until the next review, or that if changes are needed urgently they must be properly debated in public.’ Mr Shepley, a private practitioner in town planning, a former president of the Royal Town Planning Institute and chief planner for Plymouth, was commissioned to carry out a thorough review of the States department and to compare its work with best practice in the UK.