Cllr Shabir Pandor concluded the meeting and said "this will be the biggest change in planning policy in a lifetime and goes backwards in terms of democracy and is dangerous in allowing development to take place without proper robust consideration and scrutiny."
Cabinet members said that the Local Plan took 6 years to develop. The danger is the lack of public engagement if this timescale is speeded up.
Outline Planning permission and retrospective planning applications are also elements that are very dangerous as buildings will be constructed without our knowledge and then planning applications will be made to get them approved once development has been completed; this makes a mockery out of the planning system as we know it. The Tory government is proposing to centralise control and power where local views could be completely ignored by decisions being made away from the residents that will be affected.
If the effect of this paper was to to address the housing crisis then you could have sympathy for it. However all the evidence is pointing towards benefitting landowners and developers to make even bigger profits.
Cllr Pandor concluded the meeting by saying there has got to be transparency and accountability in this process and our residents have got to be assured that they can be heard.
Watch the Cabinet meeting - click on the image below
