The Donnygate planning scandal has dragged Doncaster council through the mire. And, as the police suggest (News, p29), the stain of corruption may spread wider. While we should make it clear it was councillors, not their officers, who were convicted last week in South Yorkshire, it doesn’t help the morale of a profession which is feeling bombed out. Here is just one (unnamed) example.
Two years ago, this borough planning office had 20 staff and processed applications in a few months. Today it has four – three of whom are on temporary contracts – and it now takes a year for a moderately sized application to be processed.
So how are the planning reforms talked of below going to be implemented? Short answer? Forget it. Forget it, that is, unless the government pours in money and manpower before the green paper becomes law.
As Malcolm Kerr of Montagu Evans warns (p32), the “quality and availability of planning employees is at an all-time low”. It might take a while for the green paper to become law. But the Arup report on improving local planning departments needs implementing – now.
Who is most fearful if the people have their say?
Two viewpoints, discuss: one government department wants developers to involve the public before major planning applications even reach the architect’s drawing board – and then stand firm if an outcry follows once a decision has been made. (Even if most developers dismiss both early public involvement and the so-called “third-party” rights of appeal once consent has been given.)
A second government department is fearful of public frustration taking to the streets and would like special planning courts, funded by legal aid.
Who’s right? And is there a “third way” to resolve this deeply contentious issue of third-party rights? Probably not. The DTLR with its radical green paper designed to rebuild the ramshackle planning process (see above), is right on two counts: one, developers considering major schemes have to face the fact that consulting locally is the way life is going. Better that than having the site picketed.
It is also right to reject post-permission rights for any Tom, Dick or Green group to object – it would sabotage the system. But what about the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ fears of Green Wellingtons marching on Whitehall?
Spooked by the countryside lobby – which is already shouldering its shotguns (p49) – DEFRA is floating ideas for the provision of legal aid for the odd case plus the creation of a specialist branch of the judiciary to second-guess the planning inspectorate. It is not going to work. But neither will ignoring the public from the start.
