Proposed planning law changes

[CIS121]

Well, it now seems planning departments are being advised to start implementing the essence of these changes. Is there not a thread on PH discussing this yet? Can't find it but can't believe there isn't one...

[thinfourth2]

I refer to our local planning department as the vogons

They will crawl over broken glass to be as unhelpful as posible

[chunkol]

I thought this was going to be about standing in a stream with a wok.

[tomw2000]

thinfourth2 said:

I refer to our local planning department as the vogons

They will crawl over broken glass to be as unhelpful as posible

I've had limited experience with two different council planning depts.

It is almost as if they make things as painful and as drawn out as possible to justify their own existience.

Imagine??!?!?!?

[M@verick]

chunkol said:

I thought this was going to be about standing in a stream with a wok.

No No No Chap, thats "panning". This thread is about the practice of drilling a hole in ones own skull to alleviate pressure on the brain.

HTH,

R.

[Puggit]

My dad is the councillor in charge of planning for a district council. Even he doesn't understand how the planners work!

[Sticks.]

Their activities locally seem to lack any sense of planning in the broader sense.

[Happy82]

thinfourth2 said:

I refer to our local planning department as the vogons

They will crawl over broken glass to be as unhelpful as posible

Think of them like gypsies, you need to line their palms with silver and it goes a lot more smoothly.

[Mikeyboy]

CIS121 said:

Is there not a thread on PH discussing this yet? Can't find it but can't believe there isn't one...

I think it was in planning approval.

[Tuna]

Mikeyboy said:

CIS121 said:

Is there not a thread on PH discussing this yet? Can't find it but can't believe there isn't one...

I think it was in planning approval.

I've thought for a long time that there could be a really good documentary on the abysmal results of our planning 'system' - but I'm guessing that almost anyone who might want to make a programme like that would probably want to do some building work in the future. Who would risk kicking the hornets' nest?

[Landlord]

I think, as Billy Connolly said about politicians, anyone who wants to be on the planning committee should be specificially precluded from being able to.

[nelly1]

PROSSER
But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.

ARTHUR
Oh, yes, soon as I heard of this plan, I went straight around to see them yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call much attention to them, had you? Such as maybe telling someone about them?

PROSSER looks more uncomfortable.

PROSSER
Well, the plans were on display –

ARTHUR
On display? I had to go down to the cellar to find them!

PROSSER
That’s the display department.

ARTHUR
With a torch!

PROSSER
Well, the lights had probably gone.

ARTHUR
So had the stairs.

PROSSER
Er – well – you did find them, didn’t you?

ARTHUR
Oh, yes. Yes, I did. The plans were on display, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory, with a sign on the door reading “Beware of the Leopard.”

[covmutley]

Planning is a bit of a mess at the moment. First the new government wanted localism but they seem to have abandoned that in order to promote growth.

Personally, I like the changes, but not all the details. This country needs to build more homes and current policy gives local politicians too much power to limit growth just to appease the few who shout the loudest.

Hopefully these changes will give planners the excuse to tell councillors they cant stick their heads in the sand and to plan new development in a comprehensive way that creates some good and interesting places to live, rather than the constant chipping away by planning appeal we currently get. If local authorites plan properly to meet demand and are postiive in 'planning' to deliver that demand the best quality land will be protected.

I am less sure why we need to remove the presumption to develop brownfield land first.

[unrepentant]

Puggit said:

My dad is the councillor in charge of planning for a district council. Even he doesn't understand how the planners work!

Personally I always found the opposite to be the case. In two instances that I was involved with, 1 applying and 1 opposing, I found the planners to be excellent and helpful and the self important, unqualified councillors to be the cause of all the issues. I was astonished when attending a meeting of the "committee" to see how few of them actually spoke, allowing a minority of unqualified self important little people to dominate the meeting. When it came to voting half the committee didn't even bother to vote, despite the fact that they were being paid to "attend".

[Sam_68]

covmutley said:

I am less sure why we need to remove the presumption to develop brownfield land first.

As a Planning Consultant, I'm sure you'll have encountered the words 'sequential test' and despaired?

You can't develop brownfield land (or land at lower risk of flooding, in the case of the sequential test for PPS25) first, if you can't deliver land ownership.

If you want housing numbers, you've got to allow developers to develop land that is actually available for development.

[Digga]

unrepentant said:

Puggit said:

My dad is the councillor in charge of planning for a district council. Even he doesn't understand how the planners work!

Personally I always found the opposite to be the case. In two instances that I was involved with, 1 applying and 1 opposing, I found the planners to be excellent and helpful and the self important, unqualified councillors to be the cause of all the issues. I was astonished when attending a meeting of the "committee" to see how few of them actually spoke, allowing a minority of unqualified self important little people to dominate the meeting. When it came to voting half the committee didn't even bother to vote, despite the fact that they were being paid to "attend".

I've heard precisely this from a friend who is a small-scale developer and self-builder.

Development which the planners and neighbours are happy with have been torpedoed at the last by puffed-up nimby councillors.