We learn from a comment from Councillor Roger Giles on the blog of Councillor Claire Wright (claire-wright.org) that the reason given for making it so difficult for ordinary people to speak at Development Management Committee meetings is that the lack of a 5 year land supply means that there are now so many applications that there just is not time.  He also points out that one other reason that there is not time is that members of the DMC speak at length and repetitiously and then generally vote in a very similar way, few needing to be swayed by the intellectual arguments of other members it seems.

How dreadful that we must pay for EDDC’s own past and present mistakes.

So when we have a new Local Plan – hopefully very soon – and the number of planning applications decreases, will we then go back to former arrangements where we did not have to register with a written question days in advance and hope that we won the lottery to speak?

Aaaah …..