Democracy concerns over planning laws shake-up

Concerns have been raised by a Cornwall councillor about proposed changes to the way planning decisions are made.

The government wanted to give more power to council planning officers to decide whether to approve applications.

Dulcie Tudor, who sits on Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee, feared taking decisions away from committees of elected members could harm democracy.

Labour insisted local people's and councillors' views would still be considered - but a streamlined process would help speed up the building of new homes.

The changes are part of the government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill published this week.

Labour proposed that officers should be given the power to decide on applications which adhere to an authority's local plan - which acts as a blueprint for future development.

It said that would speed up the decision making process and help deliver the 1.5 million new homes it wanted to see built over the duration of this Parliament.

Cornwall's annual housebuilding target has been increased to 4,421 to help achieve that national total.

Cllr Tudor, vice-chair of the council's strategic planning committee, said she welcomed the attempt to speed-up the process but had reservations.

She explained: "You are taking out a level of democracy and scrutiny - so if you're going to remove that then you need to replace it with something else.

"That would be how the local member interacts with the planning officer to make sure you get the best result from a planning application for that community."

She described the changes as "radical" and admitted elected councillors would have to "place their trust" in planning officers.

However, she remained concerned: "It's just important in terms of democracy that communities feel they're listened to."

The government said its reforms would help with "backing the builders" and would be "taking on the blockers."

However, Stephen Horscroft, from CPRE Cornwall, said he was concerned the changes would marginalise the views of residents and the power of elected councillors.

He argued: "In a democracy, people are entitled to block. I think good planning is about people working together to get the right schemes in the right places.

"To just bulldoze through and impose housing on communities where they don't necessarily want it or it doesn't actually deal with local need and affordability is the wrong approach."

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