I met with my aunt, mother and grandmother today for a spot of afternoon tea. As you can imagine, all the recent planning proposals were just about the only topic of conversation (we like a good rant). My aunt brought to my attention a proposed change to the Planning Bill that basically gives us - as in local communities - less say in what gets built around us. You can imagine the torrent of ‘bad’ (I think it’s rather appropriate) language tumbled out of my mouth - imagine a future where we have next to no say about big businesses and governments building what they want, where they want?

She said Friends of the Earth are pushing to reject the proposed changes, and so I had a look on their website dedicated to the issue:

http://www.yourplanningrights.co.uk

and more specifically this page, which outlines the problems with the proposed bill:

from http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/local/planning/news/planning_bill.html

“What’s wrong with the Planning Bill

The Planning Bill contains the Government’s proposals for reform of the planning system. These proposals will mean:

• Less say
  No meaningful right to be heard in person at inquiries.
• Less democracy
  No ministerial accountability for decisions.
• More dangerous climate change
  Major new developments like power stations don’t have to consider climate change.

Government wants to push through nuclear power stations and airports, by stripping you of your rights to a say in what gets built in your neighbourhood.

You can still improve the Bill by writing to your MP, the Secretary of State and a relevant member of the House of Lords, asking them to support amendments to ensure the Bill considers climate change and includes a right to have a say in public inquiries on major projects.”

I’m a bit behind with this, but if you’re like me and interested in quashing the changes involving local communities, then you can get more information from Friends of the Earth’s Planning Bill - Campaigner’s Briefing and their Community Rights Resource Pack

Let me know what you think.

Oh, and just as a little update - my arm that was involved in the cat brawl is now a lovely yellow colour, underneath the big red marks!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under allotment, plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.