This popular and widely read blog acts as a Legal Commentary on issues affecting Town & Country Planning including recent changes in planning legislation and judicial rulings in planning cases, as well as some thoughts on other issues arising in the course of my work as a Planning Lawyer. It was originally intended mainly for fellow planning professionals, but all are welcome to read it. The views expressed are my own and nobody else’s.
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Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Here we go again!
Planning professionals will be well aware by now that the Growth and Infrastructure Bill was introduced in Parliament last week. My colleague David Brock was quick off the mark with some initial reactions (see the link to his blog on the left-hand sidebar on this page).
I have not yet had a chance to look at the Bill, but will comment on it as it proceeds through the legislative process. This is the fourth piece of major planning legislation within 10 years, the previous Bills having been passed in 2004, 2008 and 2011. From comments I have already seen from other planning professionals, this one might more accurately be called “the Death of Localism Bill”, but then I have always said that the concept of localism was inconsistent with the government’s growing enthusiasm for economic growth through development. (I always thought 'localism' was a silly idea anyway.)
© MARTIN H GOODALL
Is the idea silly, or the Coalition interpretation of it?
ReplyDelete" (I always thought 'localism' was a silly idea anyway.)"
ReplyDeleteAh yes, Martin: Localism. Localism is as localism does. Under the localism agenda Glos' (for example) can export its waste processing (as a proxy for all development) problems to Oxon! Problem solved! It was never going to work. What were they thinking in Westminster and Whitehall?
The answer, I think, is that localism was a policy-wonk/Spad creation designed to woo people into thinking they could stop any development they didn't like. i.e. all of it.
Maybe they got some votes out of it; maybe not. What is certain is that it is being quietly put to sleep. And not too soon!