What is a plan, and what is plan rationalisation?
A1. In basic terms the purpose of plan rationalisation was to reduce the administrative burden the Assembly Government was placing on local authorities through planning requirements. In this context, a plan is any forward-looking statement of intention or objective which: • is prepared by Welsh county and county borough councils (although not necessarily all 22 of them) • is obligatory (ie there is some requirement, whether legal, financial or otherwise, on local authorities to prepare the plan) • deals with broadly devolved matters. The following are not covered by the plan rationalisation programme: • statements setting out the actual current extent and availability of services • reports on performance, whether including qualitative or quantitative information or both • plans prepared solely by other types of local authority (eg National Park authorities, police authorities and fire and rescue authorities) • plans which are not under the control of the Assembly Government, and/or whi
