The mountain has laboured, and.......

Bearing in mind all the brouhaha on the part of ministers over their proposals to put under-performing LPAs into special measures, so that developers can bypass them and apply for planning permission direct to the Planning Inspectorate, the outcome of just one council (Blaby, Leicestershire) being caught in the net is somewhat underwhelming. In the circumstances, there doesn’t seem to be much point in poring over the detailed regulations that were brought into effect on 1 October for dealing with these applications under section 62A of the 1990 Act.

Some county authorities were also in the frame over their handling of minerals and waste applications, but De-CLoG has been forced to delay any action in these cases due to doubts over the statistics on which a decision to put these authorities into special measures would have been based. This is not to say that one or more authorities at county level may no longer be in line to have their minerals and waste applications handled under section 62A, but it may be some time before we know whether any and if so which of these authorities will be told to go and sit on the naughty seat.

© MARTIN H GOODALL