Saturday, January 15, 2011

Useless Town Council Planning Committee shown to be Useless again!

I support the decision over the proposed development of hardstandings at the Caravan and Camping site by the Town Council Planning Committee to approve this proposal. In this instance this shows common sense by the TC Planning Committee. HDC Planning Officers have recommended REFUSAL of this proposal and in doing so this shows why the TC Planning Committee is utterly useless.

The reason why HDC Planning Officers are recommending refusal is simply another statutory consultee, The Environment Agency, has said it should be refused because the land is liable to flooding. This seems a bit odd because the site can still be used for the same purpose without hardstandings.

The TC Planning Committee can shout as much as it likes but other statutory consultees have the final say and have better objections. Time and again the TC Planning Committee says one thing and the District Council and other stautory consultees make the decisions.

What is the point of having this utterly useless committee? The argument goes that because the Town Council has the right to be sent all planning applications this means the Town Council should have a say on all these applications and it gives St Neots a say. When the Town Council is ignored time and again then why have this committee?

Many parts of England don't have this level of Parish/Town government and planning gets along just fine. Just because the Town Council has a right doesn't mean it has to exercise this right. Time to get rid of the Town Council Planning Committee and save officer and councillors time on pontificating about planning applications they obviously can do nothing about!

1 comment:

Me said...

It seems silly to me citing the fact that this site floods as the reason for refusal. The said Camping club has sites all around the UK adjacent to rivers and yet has been allowed to have Hardstandings...and as you say this can be used for the same purpose using grass plots.....it isn't as if the Club are likely to try to make the site part of their Open All Year site, although they do have one at Boroughbridge which is in a similar location to the St Neots site...