Planners’ long-lasting impact

I have followed the deliberations of this council’s ‘planning’ over the past 25 years and am no longer surprised to learn that developers so often seem to get away with the most controversial schemes in the face of strongly expressed popular opinion.

The role of planning officers is, of course, purely an advisory one, not expected to have a soft spot for a developer.

It is up to the councillors how much weight they give for or against a planning application but they must, naturally, be influenced by the advice they receive.

Any application for planning permission must survive several hurdles of examination before it is finally approved, but it is most surprising how often these hurdles are easily surmounted.

After an initial vetting by an officer, the application must be agreed by a majority vote of the appropriate committee – usually very strictly applied numerically without any large minority vote being considered.

Councillors may or may not be restricted by a decision of their local party.

It all looks very innocuous but the strength of any representations will always depend on the costs involved.

A common piece of advice given to councillors who wish to oppose an application is that if they refuse permission the applicant may appeal, with the consequent cost to the council acting as a deterrent.

And there is the added risk that the inspector will find in favour of the applicant after all!

Finally, if any of our councillors are naive enough to disregard the full implications of a grant for a large planning application, then they should stand at any roundabout on the A259 – Wick, Littlehampton Cemetery, the Angmering bypass junction – during peak hours and let them ponder what our roads will be like in five, ten or 15 years’ time with the large traffic increase engendered by massive numbers of new houses and an increase in population and car ownership!

Are they willing to take the longer-term responsibility for this?

W. F. Daggett

Barn Close

Littlehampton

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