Quote:[B]Eric Pickles blasts planning system[/B]
In his speech ?A Vision for Cities? at The Economist's [I]Liveable Cities Conference[/I], Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CLG), Eric Pickles, reiterated the principles behind the Decentralisation and Localism Bill.

Referring to the great days of Birmingham under Joseph Chamberlain, he said: ?Visit one of those Victorian city halls and you can feel a citadel to civic pride, civic duty and independence?. Independence was his watchword throughout: ?No waiting for approval from Parliament - much less an instruction manual. They knew what they wanted to do - but they also had the powers and just got on with it.? He advocated the ?Chamberlain-plus? solution - empowering communities and individuals ?to solve their own problems?offering a reason to get involved and make a difference to civic life.?

All very much in line with the Decentralisation and Localism Bill, but he singles out the current planning system as the culprit: ?perhaps one of the biggest blockades to growth over recent decades has been the planning system?we haven?t had proper planning in this country for decades?. The Localism Bill will, he claims, correct the balance by a powerful presumption in favour of stainable (sic) development: ?Far from being a NIMBY's charter - this is a way of giving people a reason to say 'yes' to growth.?

The trick that the Bill has to pull off is to deliver a new system that maintains the key principle of the UK?s current planning system: to reach a balance between competing, but not always equally articulate, interests to ensure that long term public benefit is achieved - whilst at the same time empowering and supporting local communities to get involved and deliver sustainable development to improve their local environment. The danger is that the new system will simply support the interests of a vocal and articulate minority.

The Alliance ?s Spatial Planning Advocacy Group and the Joint Committee of National Amenity Societies met last week (19 January) to examine the Bill. Their recommendations will centre around two key areas: how far the Bill sustains the current level of heritage protection and the capacity of local forums to take up the opportunities that the Bill offers. [I]Back[/I]