Less than a year ago, the new Labour government dramatically changed the planning law, increased Colchester City Council’s house building target by a whopping 40% and made it legally compulsory for the council to provide enough sites to build them on.
The council’s planning officers duly produced a plan as to where all those houses could go. Few of us liked it, particularly with the increased congestion it will bring to urban area and thousands of houses it puts in rural areas. But last week, as a local plan committee we voted to give the public a chance to say exactly what they think of it in a public consultation.
However, barely a week later – and before the public consultation has even started, the government has just shifted the goal posts yet again by announcing yet another massive change to planning law. This included 1. planning permission being given “by default” near railway stations like Marks Tey; and even worse 2. requiring local councils to “inform” the government if they plan to refuse planning permission for sites with more than 150 proposed houses. This is explicitly stated to be so that the government minister can simply approve them himself without even holding a planning inquiry.
In other words, if a developer wants to build 150 or even 1,500 houses in any rural community then the minister can simply steamroller them through and there would be absolutely nothing the local council could legally do to stop it.
Local people deserve to be treated much better than this by the government – whatever political colour it is.
Dr Martin Parsons
Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet (Cons) and Conservative spokesman on Sustainability
The council’s planning officers duly produced a plan as to where all those houses could go. Few of us liked it, particularly with the increased congestion it will bring to urban area and thousands of houses it puts in rural areas. But last week, as a local plan committee we voted to give the public a chance to say exactly what they think of it in a public consultation.
However, barely a week later – and before the public consultation has even started, the government has just shifted the goal posts yet again by announcing yet another massive change to planning law. This included 1. planning permission being given “by default” near railway stations like Marks Tey; and even worse 2. requiring local councils to “inform” the government if they plan to refuse planning permission for sites with more than 150 proposed houses. This is explicitly stated to be so that the government minister can simply approve them himself without even holding a planning inquiry.
In other words, if a developer wants to build 150 or even 1,500 houses in any rural community then the minister can simply steamroller them through and there would be absolutely nothing the local council could legally do to stop it.
Local people deserve to be treated much better than this by the government – whatever political colour it is.
Dr Martin Parsons
Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet (Cons) and Conservative spokesman on Sustainability
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