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Boardwalk :: Forum List The Phoenix Quarter General Discussion

Harry   LDC planning problems - 2008/01/10 17:59 Norman Baker made an interesting comment in a Commons debate on planning on 8 January 2008: 8 January 2008 'Lewes district council in my constituency, is so thin on staff, so tight is the ship being run, so few are the officers employed, that the director of planning, because of staff illness, is now determining simple household applications on his own. There is hardly anyone else in the department—that is how thin things have become because of pressures on finances and because of the drip-feed of planning grant. It is an issue for local authorities in London and the south-east in particular, but perhaps it applies more widely. The problems are going to get worse in times ahead.'   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. jstockdale   Re:LDC planning problems - 2008/01/13 15:29 I am sure Norman is quite right. The LDC Planning Department is seriously underresourced. But, planning is a statutory responsibility of the Council and it must be done properly. The pressure to build in the South East means there are ever increasing volumes of applications - and it is critical that planning departments are staffed to manage the tide of applications properly. This one area where the Council can't skimp on cost   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. sashka   Re:LDC planning problems - 2008/01/16 06:27 Mr Baker seems to be making biased assumptions about the reasons for the problems. What evidence does he have that lack of funding is solely responsible for current troubles? I am sure that resources are not generous, but Lewes has a long history of planning staffing problems, and also serious planning errors,so there must be other explainations. Is it a good department to work in? Are other poorly resourced planning departments a more attractive alternative? and why? Are there management failures? Those of us that live in the town all know that there are other problems in this department that need sorting out, and it is no use Mr Baker or anyone else pretending other wise. One problem that does not invite our sympathy being the problematic attitude shown by the department towards local residents, which is strangely different to that displayed to developers. There is a list of planning cock-ups gradually bulding up in Lewes that did not need more funding to be avoided.I also wonder what has been happening to the additional funding of hundreds of thousands of pounds of bonuses? I am sorry Mr Frost has to do actual planning applications, but he has been doing the job long enough that he should take some responsibilty for any current crisis. Whatever the causes the town is being irreperably damaged by poorly made , rushed, decisions, and the situation needs to change. Money would help, but I am afraid it will not solve this particular problem. this department that seems to be admitting finally that it cannot do its job properly has already cocked up the Lewews house Site application once, and is in danger of making the situation worse, let alone all the other major developments that need to be carefully considered.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. bill   Re:LDC planning problems - 2008/01/16 22:37 They may well be short-handed in the Planning Dept. But how many staff does it take to say "no development on flood plains until the town is fully defended against flooding"? If LDC were to move their planning offices to Morris Road or South Street, I reckon they`d find it a whole lot easier to say just that. High tide about 5.00.am. tomorrow morning. I won`t bother setting the alarm.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. Jess   Re:LDC planning problems - 2008/02/04 13:47 Not really part of this thread, but can anyone tell me more about a rival bid to develop this area from some kind of local community group? Sounds too good to be true - so it probly isn't   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum. jstockdale   Re:LDC planning problems - 2008/02/07 19:23 Hey, Jess. I'm not sure where you heard that. The excellent LM website has been hibernating far too long. It shouldn't just be about the Phoenix or even just planning. There are plenty of other burning issues for Lewes Matters like keeping Lewes in the National Park that need to be aired and discussed. Debate on the site came to a halt when the 'controllers' insisted on all contributors logging in. I know why they did it because someone outside was regularly trashing the discussion forums and the webmaster got fed up with having to clean it up. Logging in is a bore - but it's not that onerous and there's no reason why you have to lose your anonymity. You can call yourself Brer Rabbit, if you want. I gather some people think they can't even READ the discussion contributions without logging in. Someone should tell them that's not true on the front page - and maybe LM will come to life again.   | | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.

Boardwalk :: Forum List The Phoenix Quarter General Discussion

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