The Oldham Liberal Democrat Council Group has made its opposition to Conservative Government proposals to change the planning system known today in its written response to a public consultation.

The proposals are contained in a White Paper Planning for the Future, and parties with an interest were asked to respond by today’s closing deadline.  Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, has responded on behalf of his party colleagues with a six-page blistering attack in reply to the consultation.

Liberal Democrat Councillors believe the proposals represent nothing short of a ‘power grab’ with elected representatives and the public cut out of the planning process in the future. 

Councillor Sykes explained:  “Planning democracy as we know it will be killed off.  There will no longer be any planning committees.  All land will be placed into one of three categorised zones for development, and national planning guidelines will be applied to any developments in future.  Councillors or members of the public will not be able to object to planning applications as all judgements on them will be made by unelected and unaccountable planning officials.”

Councillor Sykes is also fearful for the future of the Green Belt:  “I am far from satisfied that our Green Belt will have the protection that it currently does in law, and other categories of public open space will have none if it falls outside the ‘protected zone’.  In Greater Manchester, our Green Belt and green spaces are already under attack from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework; Planning for the Future will make it much easier to develop on these green spaces in future.”

Councillor Sykes is firmly convinced that the government is in any case aiming at the wrong targets in its White Paper:  “Government ministers are proposing to fix a planning system that isn’t broken.  Planners and Councillors are not responsible for the refusal of developers to build new homes.  Nine out of ten planning applications are granted.  Existing sites with planning permission which could accommodate one million homes have not been built out.  The Council for the Protection of Rural England has just published a study showing that Brownfield land is available in England on which 1,300,000 new homes could be built!”

“If the Government wants to do something constructive in planning it needs to get developers building instead of land banking and it needs to provide more money to local authorities for cleaning up contamination on Brownfield sites so we can put them back into use for housing”.