Planning delegation: there will be no consultation

Where will all the houses go?

I just blogged earlier on concerns re planning legislation - well there were plenty of those concerns noted this evening - I'm back home now after a long Council meeting - two of the big issues discussed relate to planning - the first the number of houses we have to take in this area - sadly we can do little but accept the report - not to do so would leave us even more open to challenge by developers. This makes a nonsense of any of the government saying we can decide where houses can go - there are so many pressures but hey I'll save that for later...

The second paper had a number of items bundled together - public speaking at Development Control Committee and a framework to develop the new charges for planning applications - these were not contentious but the item that was relates to planning delegation...

Last November Council voted - see my blog here - to make changes to planning delegation and to review those in a year.  Well instead of that the Conservatives decided to bring forward that review and worse still did so without any proper consultation with the Parish and Town Councils. I asked a question whether the Council would consult with Parish and Town Councils as we agreed at Full Council last November and the answer was a 'no'!!!! I then spoke in support of a Lib Dem amendment to have the part referring to delegation removed but this was voted down by Tories - well one Tory voted in support of the amendment. Labour also put a couple of amendments which also both fell.

For me whether or not the planning delegation changes have led to improvements is not key to this issue - we agreed to consult and now haven't. Is it any wonder that people lose faith in democracy? Arh it's late and I must be up early so I'll finish this for now......