New planning laws are dreadful

I've been meaning to cover in a blog for a while the proposed new Planning laws. Below is a link to a Friends of the Earth petition and more info - here's what they write: "The Treasury has decided that the planning system is a barrier to business. They want to remove what they see as obstacles – including you and your community getting involved. Our town and country planning system plays a crucial role in protecting our environment and communities. We believe that involvement from local people improves the decisions made and is the key to successful developments. We work to safeguard your rights and to protect your environment."

Photo: view across to Archway School from Randwick

If the recommendations from these reviews are implemented, it could mean:

• Reducing public involvement in inquiries to speed up major projects like airports, incinerators, M-way expansions and nuclear power stations or nuclear waste stores
  
• Increased domination of supermarkets in town centres at the expense of local shops
• Reducing your right to have a say in plans
• Wildlife, habitats and green belts under threat from development

I have to say I'm angry about the new Government proposals to take even more planning powers away from local councils - already the situation is dire and here they are taking more powers away - one minute they talk about local democracy but however you dress this, this is a bad move.

The Government’s new White Paper on Planning offers a vision of destruction by inappropriate development. Already we have seen unaffordable, energy inefficient and water wasting housing are hallmarks of this Government. Homes across the country (including in Stroud) have been built on floodplains and at lower standards than those to be found in many other European countries. Not content with the haste and environmental recklessness of this process since 1997, it seems the Government now proposes to speed up the rate of its failures - housing remains priced way beyond the reach of many people at present. They continue to neglect for development northern regions with better water supplies and more brownfield sites - we urgently need more balance to the countries economic policies rather than concentrating all growth in SE and to a lesser extent SW.

Yes I am angry - and talk of environment then see they've now limited energy grants to
£2500 per household - this undermines the domestic solar and wind turbine industries, and contradicts claims of concern about climate change. The Government also still insists that the UK contribution to greenhouse gases is just 2% of the global total, when 12-14% is a more accurate figure - see Christian Aid in 'Coming Clean: revealing the UK’s true carbon footprint' (London, February 2007).

And talking of badly built new homes threatening any green plans, The Observer had a good article by Juliette Jowit and Nick Mathiason (20th May 2007) with details of a report by the Sustainable Development Commission - in its first official 'watchdog report' on the government, the Sustainable Development Commission claims the rush to build nearly 200,000 new homes a year is leading to too little consultation, poor design standards and too few facilities such as public transport links, parks, shops and community halls. Although there were some 'impressive pockets of practice', too many homes are also being demolished or built in areas of 'severe' water stress in the south-east, instead of spending money regenerating areas of deprivation in the Midlands and the north of England, says the report, 'Building houses or creating communities?'

As a result, the plans will generate huge emissions of greenhouse gases and massive quantities of demolition waste, forcing residents to become dependent on cars, and make it hard to build communities.

The report praises some improvements by government, including a shift away from demolition and a promise to make all new homes 'zero carbon' from 2016, but says 1.5m new homes will be built before that date. Homes built from today will make up one quarter of Britain's housing by 2050.

The report calls for tougher standards for energy and water saving designs, and any increases in carbon emissions and water use to be offset by improvements to existing houses. Other recommendations include higher density developments to support bus links and local shops and other services, more effort to connect new housing to existing communities, removing the zero-VAT incentive to demolish and rebuild homes, better co-ordination of long-term funding for services, public transport and green spaces, and more community consultation.

Lastly before I finish this blog item the recent report, "Confronting Climate Change" from an international panel of scientists has proposed that all countries cease building on coastal land that is less than a metre above high tide so as to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change. The recommendation comes from experts from 11 countries, working for the UN, who have spent two years devising a blueprint to allow countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the next century. The Government's new advice, PPS25 on flooding is good but goes no where near far enough - we do need our Government and others to wake up to what the scientists are telling us and start planning properly....

Take action: http://www.planningdisaster.co.uk/