I have always had a lot of time for Mr Morris of Planning Magazine; try his latest piece here (extract below)
"...the most common criticisms of planning are that it is slow, bureaucratic, blocks desperately needed development or undermines the economy. But as the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) asks this week, is this really the case?
Conventional wisdom usually leads to blanket perceptions that may be totally inaccurate. One of the biggest causes of disrepute is where developers jump over every conceivable hurdle to gain the backing of planning officers, only for members to throw out the application.
How many times have councillors gone against hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of legal and professional advice on the grounds that they have "local knowledge"?
According to the PAS, however, the system is not quite the symbol of broken Britain that some would like to portray. Where clear and strong planning policies are in place, members are in little doubt about why particular decisions must be made. This gives developers that elusive quality called certainty.
Good planning works. Unfortunately, that is not a message the system's detractors want to hear."
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