The Planning Inspectorate badly needs reforming and it’s time the Local Government Association and MPs did more to pressure the Westminster government to change the way it treats rural communities.
The Archbishop of Canterbury recently said: “We must build proper homes – and have a housing policy that is about creating communities, not just bricks and mortar.” He has an excellent point.
Houses alone are not enough, even if they are affordable, as far more should be. There must be reasonably close services and the social structure people need to live fulfilling lives. Medical care, education, leisure facilities, public green spaces, public transport, roads and parking, nearby shops – the things people like me go on about all the time. Real communities for real people.
We can’t be more interested in bricks and mortar than in people. When we do build on a large scale, it’s vital that we choose the best places to develop for both old and new residents and that we plan forward so infrastructure will be in place in good time.
Government policy makes no allowance for the effect of huge new estates in or near to existing communities. It’s left by default to commercial organisations to decide which are the most convenient and profitable sites for them and whilst without profit no-one in the private sector will build anything, local communities should not be ignored as they now are.
The problem is that the Planning Inspectorate are not an impartial body, they are a crude arm of government, instructed to enforce policy with little reference to local interests by punishing councils who don’t toe the line.
It badly needs reforming. Central Government in London must cease imposing their will on towns and villages to make it easy for builders and a few landowners to maximise profits.
Most rural communities are not NIMBYs, against development in principal, or disapprove of reasonable profit, we just want a little natural justice and common sense in the planning system.
Paul Foyster
District Council member
for Holbeach
