Law changes would deny us having say in our future
THE surprise by-election result in Chesham and Amersham last week, where the Tories surprisingly lost their seat to the Lib Dems, has ramifications here in Rossendale.
As Amanda Milling, the former Helmshore councillor and now vice-chairman of the Conservative Party nationally pointed out, people in Chesham and Amersham are scared, and angry, about proposing reforms to planning legislation.
They should be - and so should we.
Planning applications should be decided locally, on a case by case basis, on what is best for the local community.
Sadly, that’s not the reality - and if the new planning legislation is approved by the Conservative government, it will get far worse.
At the moment, councils produce local plans to government specifications - finding space for a certain number of homes, for example.
That means developers know where they might get planning permission, but each case is judged on its merits.
That doesn’t give the councillors deciding an application as much control as you might think - they are still tightly controlled by planning law set in Westminster.
Any council choosing to go against the planning laws set in Westminster - even when doing so to support the will of local people fighting, say, a new factory which is proposed in their area - knows that if the law isn’t on their side, the applicant will appeal to Government planning inspectors, and the council ends up having to pay expensive legal fees to defend their position, which will probably then be overturned.
Rossendale Council tried to oppose the redevelopment of the old Kwik Save site in Rawtenstall as a wedding venue, supporting local residents’ concern about parking, noise etc - but still a government planning inspector overturned it.
So it’s already tough.
But at least we residents have a voice on each application and one the council can listen to.
Under the Conservative government plans, the right to approve to reject each application would be revoked.
Instead, councillors would be left to talk about things like the colour of brick to be used on a housing estate.
So in Edenfield, where Rossendale Council proposed allocating fields for possible development in the new Local Plan, residents wouldn’t be able to fight any future development when it was formally proposed.
Surely the solution, therefore, is for the council to ensure when it creates its Local Plan that it protects all the spaces people don’t want developed, from development.
I’m sure no-one at Rossendale Council really wants to turn over green fields outside Edenfield to new housing - but they have a quota of houses, set by Government, that they need to find space for.
And it has to be land which developers are likely to want to develop on.
There are many other problems with the planning changes too - such as owners of shops in town centres being able to convert them to housing without needing to seek permission.
Such a move could be a disaster for towns like Haslingden and Bacup.
Imagine if all the empty shops in those areas had been converted to houses when times were tough.
- there would be little town centre to redevelop now.
Regularly, when controversial planning applications come forward, you’ll see Jake Berry, our local MP, vowing to stand alongside residents against the council.
But this isn’t a battle against the council.
Their hands are tied already.
They essentially won’t be involved in the planning process at all in the future.
The battle is against planning changes being proposed by Government.
If we believe in having a say in the future of our area, we need to be lobbying Mr Berry to ensure he stands up for the borough against planning laws already prompting a revolt in the south.