Local people to lose say on new developments

Jason Sugarman, the Conservatives' Parliamentary Spokesman for the consitutency of Lewes, today criticised proposed changes to planning laws, laid out in a report commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown.

The controversial proposals in the Barker Review, published last week, include:

• A central planning quango: A planning commission will be created to decide major planning applications. The commission will not be accountable to local councils or ministers. It will rule on waste sites, incinerators, power stations and even some large-scale housing estates. This represents a major centralisation of planning policy and the abandonment of local and national democratic input in planning.
• Regional assemblies to rip up the green belt: The regional assemblies will be directed to 'review' England's green belts, irrespective of the wishes of local people and giving the green light to concrete over them. The regional assemblies are unelected and voters have no democratic ability to challenge their decisions.
• Weaking controls on out-of-town developments: Currently, local councils can reject proposals for new supermarkets and retail developments outside towns on the basis of a lack of demand for new sites. This power of discretion is to be removed, weakening urban regeneration and undermining small shops in local high streets.

"We do need to build more homes and speed up the planning system. But I am strongly opposed to Gordon Brown's plans for a new undemocratic government quango to impose developments on local communities," said Jason.

"With major local developments like the Newhaven incinerator and the Phoenix Quarter in Lewes on the horizon it is vital local people do not lose their voice in planning matters."

"If Gordon Brown wanted to cut planning red tape, abolishing the whole tier of regional planning and the scrapping the South East England Regional Assembly should be his first step. But instead, I fear Gordon Brown wants to consign local democracy to the scrapheap."

12th December 2006