Boles told to apologise to Tory MP who says he will lose his seat because of his planning policies

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/10809862/Nick-Boles-told-to-apologise-for-costing-Tories-seats.html

And he’s only worried about 150 houses! Here in East Devon we are already in the thousands.

Hugo Swire should be VERY worried – though he has hardly been in the UK recently because of his Foreign Office trips so maybe he hasn’t noticed much.

Boles says “Sue your council if they don’t give you a plot of land to build on”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10811330/Sue-your-council-if-you-cant-get-a-plot-to-build-on-Nick-Boles-says.html

Whose tail wags which dog and why?

On. planning lawyer’s blog there is a rant about how difficult local authorities make it to have planning applications validated – with rigid checklists that do not always suit the type of application being made.

Be that as it may, one of the comments says it all for us poor proles trying to ensure that dodgy developers don’t shirk their responsibilities:

Dr Anton Lang MRTPI said…
Hear, hear. As the someone who actually stood up to this nonsense and ended up at a judicial review leading to the revised Guidance on Validation having to be issued, I applaud you for keeping this matter alive. The guidance has not gone far enough and local authorities still ask for a gamut of unnecessary supporting information they do not really need, nor understand. Roll back the actual legislation and make everything simpler and at the applicant’s discretion. The tail has been wagging the dog for too long. The lpas [local planning authorities] are there to serve the applicants and NOT the other way round.

So now we know!

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8170718846507476773&postID=7411782539593349100&isPopup=true