Out of town free-for-all: Planning law reform ‘is a threat to the countryside’http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ntres.htmlSorry to bore y'all with more planning-related tedium, but thought this one was interesting. Basically, the Government have tried to distill all national planning policy documents into a single concise statement - actually a fine idea in theory, but they seem to have prioritised brevity over content, so there are an awful lot of gaps.
However, the Mail's tone in this case is clearly sympathetic to the view of the CPRE, and as such the emphasis is critical. As a result, the focus is on Vince Cable, complete with a photo of him looking conniving, despite the production of this document being
Conservative party policy, direct from the Tories' pre-election discussion document called 'Open Source Planning'.
This prompts the droolers to turn on Cable:
Quote:
Vince Cable is dangerous. He wants uncontrolled immigration and he wants the countryside turned into concrete. This is the only reason the countryside is to be developed on - the unsustainable population rise fuelled by mass immigration. Blade Runner comes to the UK..... This government, like the previous one hasnt got a clue what it is doing. Surely the conservative party is about preserving? If so why are they letting this communist (communists love concrete, just look at any communist country) maniac loose? If the Tories called a general election guaranteeing a referendum on the EU they would win. If this goes through then it is the nail in the coffin.
- Matthew Tysoe, Northants, UK,
Essentially, the Conservative party and conservative press cannot reconcile the inherently conflicting constituencies within their own party - the blue rinsers in the shires who want nothing to be built ever, and the wild free-marketeers who'd ideally like to be building where
you're standing right now. Therefore, the inevitable result is fudge and deflection - the document itself is fudge, and the focus on Cable is deflection.
(Incidentally, in case you're interested, the Conservative party leadership have come down heavily on the side of the free-marketeers. So, just so you know, anything you hear about more local-level decision making, neighbourhood planning etc is a smokescreen that is being contradicted at the very highest level).
This is frustrating:
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Excuse me, democracy ? I thought that meant giving the people a say at the very least in what happens in the country or more locally in their communities. How exactly is this change in policy nothing more than a dictate from the centre that I was not consulted on or want. Like a lot of people I was stupid enough to have voted for the first time at the last election for the Conservatives. This policy along with a lot of other rubbish proposed by this government makes it impossible to even think of voting for the Conservative Party again. Do they care? probably not !!!
- stephen bennetts, penzance, 26/7/2011 8:52
This is what they do! Why did you vote for them?
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