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Will red tape cutting benefit Groby?
November 2012 The appeal by Bloors against the refusal of planning permission to develop land next to Groby Cemetery will begin on December 11th is expected to last a minimum of two days and will be heard by Ms A Davison. As reported last month, because of a conflict of interest the Borough Council will no longer be represented by Simon Stannion of Marrons, a leading expert in planning law. This means he is free to represent the Parish Council instead. The Borough Council will now be represented by Barrister Timothy Leader.
The outcome of the appeal may be uncertain, but the residents feel that the reasons for rejecting the development are valid, whatever the planning inspector may conclude. They look around at the schools and health facilities and see that Groby is full. An additional reason to the application refusal was added by members which said that "existing schools and health care facilities have insufficient capacity to expand and the local planning authority is not satisfied that the developer contributions can mitigate against the impact of development. Therefore the proposals are not considered to be sustainable..."
Addition withdrawn
However, the Borough Council has now withdrawn this addition. "The council is required to submit evidence to support this at appeal," explained a spokesperson. "Members hoped to be able to provide this evidence, but unfortunately it was not forthcoming in time for the appeal. Members were asked for their views at the 23 October planning committee and agreed to withdraw this reason for refusal from the appeal if the supporting evidence could not be produced."
It remains to be seen what impact this reversal has and to what extent the philosophy of development, development, development, has percolated down from the Coalition to the planning appeals process.
The return of Eric
But it is not just planning law relating to housing and commercial development that has been subject to streamlining and simplification. The Groby skyline will soon change when the two recently approved wind turbines tower over the fields behind the fishing lakes, and the prospect has now been raised by some MP's of a free for all for mobile phone mast construction.
Eric Pickles, the Community Secretary, may have been out of the limelight recently but he's now bounced back into it with his comments on the Growth and Infrastructure Bill. Earlier legislation had promised to remove the bottlenecks and cut the red tape in planning law and this bill it seems will cut even more red tape.
Mike Jones,of the Local Government Association is reported to have expressed concern that the new bill will "open the door to a mobile phone mast free for all," leaving people and councils powerless to object. Apparently more decisions may be taken centrally, with developers having the right to seek fresh decisions from Eric if a local authority is thought to have a very poor performance over planning. He believes masts are no more intrusive than satellite dishes. "dishes can be put up without planning permission," he is reported as saying,"so why can't we do the same with broadband technology?"
Although it seems to some as if the golden dawn of Localism has taken a fast forward to a golden sunset, Nicholas Boles MP said in the House of Commons that “for the avoidance of doubt, clause 7 of the Growth Bill makes no change to the planning regime for mobile phone masts, which governs their location and siting.”
Business Minister Michael Fallon said that mobile operators “will be encouraged to engage with local authorities and communities as a matter of best practice, and they will have to sign up to a code of practice on the siting of this infrastructure, to ensure that that is handled sensitively.”
What concerns Groby residents?
Although red tape is being cut left, right and centre, ask a councillor what concerns residents mention to them and you'll find that it isn't that it's too hard to get permission to build on a field. Neither is it that there aren't enough wind turbines or mobile masts in Groby. But it might well be that they are concerned about dog mess on pavements or the difficulties that on street parking cause in the village centre. Residents know all about red tape and parking regulations, but plans to streamline a system that has already taken more than two years to bring some more yellow lines to the streets of Groby will come too late.
Currently residents are frustrated, the Parish Council is frustrated, and no doubt the officers at County Hall who have to work through a quagmire of regulations are frustrated as well. The Department for Transport is looking into ways of streamlining the Traffic Regulation Order process but there is no indication when and if this will prove positive. The reason behind the current system is to allow time slots for interested or affected people to make comment and/or objections, which is considered particularly important since parking offences became matters for Civil enforcement.
Civil enforcement allows for direct challenges to be made when concerns are raised about a number of issues to do with Traffic Regulation Orders including such things as signing and lining, and the way an Order has been written. The actual order making process can also be challenged if the various stages have not been adhered to which could result in an entire Order being put into disrepute if found not to have been made according to procedure. The County Council has to ensure the correct procedure has been followed to avoid any future problems with an Order.
But the good news is that, though not imminent, the end is in sight. After all the public consultation and tweaking, no objections were raised to the final scheme by the Parish Council at it's November meeting. Because there has been some tweaking to take account of the comments of residents there is more advertising to come, followed by the making of an Order, followed by more advertising and the last time anyone can object.
Not everyone will be happy when the yellow line painters arrive, but we'll all have to wait and see what happens next.