Who carries out the appraisals?
Appraisals need to be carried out by the plan makers. However in order to provide transparency and challenge, support from the SA Co-ordinator and other key services is available. A large part of the appraisal relies on subjective judgments and opinions, and is therefore important that the process is rigorous and robust. In most cases services and officers usually come to a common agreement. However there may well be cases where there is disagreement between appraisers and the plan-owning service. In this case the SA Core Team will act as arbiter and if they are unable to agree then it would be referred to senior managers to work out a solution. The council needs to be aware that in some circumstances, particularly in relation the LDF, the council may need to justify these judgements in formal proceedings.
