I welcome our coming to the end of long and exhaustive consideration of the bill. I extend my party's condolences to Sandra White, who has suffered a bereavement, and to my colleague Iain Smith, who has also suffered a bereavement this week.

I thank the many witnesses who came to the Communities Committee, all the people who participated in the forums, the clerks to the committee for their tremendous efforts, the officials from the Scottish Executive, the Deputy Minister for Communities and, last but by no means least, the convener of the committee, apart from anything else for steering us through all of Donald Gorrie's amendments.

The content of the bill is right and will bring about a sea change in the practice of planning and the public's perception of it. I agree with the minister that there is consensus on the core provisions in the bill. The new planning hierarchy has been welcomed in many quarters and it is right and proper to put the national planning framework on a statutory footing. I believe that the framework will undergo comprehensive and effective parliamentary scrutiny—I cannot imagine that that will not happen. In that vein, particularly close scrutiny will be required of the statutory instruments, regulations and guidance that will be made under the bill, to which the minister referred.

I do not envy the Communities Committee or its successor committee the task of scrutinising the considerable amount of secondary legislation that it will need to examine, although I can confirm that that is not why I left the committee. In particular, the committee will look for recognition of concerns about the need for appropriate flexibility on the boundaries of strategic development authorities, in line with what was said at stages 2 and 3. It will also consider carefully the notification requirements for local authority interest cases and developments or planning applications that are beyond the agreed development plan.

It is essential that the integrity of development plans be preserved. If it is not, the community involvement ethos will mean little. It is important to get into a cycle of five-year reviews with midway scrutiny. We have done a lot to clear away the clutter of small applications. Delegated powers such as those that have existed for a number of years in Scottish Borders Council and other councils should allow time for major issues to be considered and for development planning. However, many planning departments are overwhelmed with applications or, at least, challenged by their number, which is a result, I presume, of the Scottish economy's strength. Therefore, the Executive needs to address the resourcing of local authority planning departments and the training of adequate numbers of planners.

I, too, regret that it was not possible to include provisions on high hedges in the bill, but it is probably the wrong place for that. As I did at stage 2, I urge progress on that matter, because it affects a number of my constituents and people in other parts of Scotland.