You would have thought that after 30 years as a planning consultant I really should be inured by now to the vagaries of public opinion. Sadly not. After another two days of mind numbing public consultation I am yet again sure that Localism is going to be a monumental failure.
Well, that's a bit strong Ian I hear you retort, surely a move toward local democracy will be beneficial and lead to better planning for all?
No. Not now. Not ever. Never. The public don't want to plan positively for their area they want to stop anything and everything that could even remotely impact on their lives whether this is contrary to good planning or good sense.
In his book 'God Collar' Marcus Brigstock discusses the issue of humanity and remarks.. "I don't mean to be too disparaging but... be honest, have you seen humanity? Have you met many of them? Have a look now, peer out the window...did you do it? Ghastly aren't they?"
In the normal course of daily events I'm sure that the majority of humanity is perfectly pleasant and amiable. Willing to make a cheery greeting, hold a door open, even offer a seat on the bus to a lady or two. But make a planning application within 200 miles of them or theirs and Mr Jekyll turns rapidly into Mr Hyde.
We leafleted, posted expensive notices in the local paper and staged a public exhibition. The first person through the door (20 minutes ahead of time) complained instantly that they didn't know anything about the consultation and said it should be re-notified to all residents (about 50,000) and a public meeting held instead. Lets ignore the fact he/she managed to find the venue, at or about the right time and had a consultation leaflet in his/her hand and evidently knew all about the proposal, the real issue is that he/she was brooking no argument. Preconceived opinions were set to stun and "lets find any reason at all to phillibuster the scheme because, 'I don't like it'". And so it began.
Over 17 hours I listened pretty consistently to opinions about my client (mostly slanderous and potentially actionable), about the Councillors (definitely assuming all were corrupt), about the client and the Council (absolutely unrepeatable) about the scheme (not needed, not wanted, not appropriate, not everything) and about me (again slanderous) to my face. And all that time I had to be polite and suck it up in the interests of not prejudicing my client and maintaining a professional stance.
Well bully for you Butter.
The thing is, this is going to become the norm. I have been there before of course, but if I heard it once I heard it a thousand times, 'we will be making the decisions now, it's localism' - I paraphrase (and made it polite too).
Fine. Lets hear some common-sense justifications for your position on planning merit then.
Nope. We just don't want it.
But it is allocated in the adopted Local Plan for the proposed development.
Don't care, don't want it.
And so it went on, and on, and on.......
A particularly vicious addition to the vituperative backwash of public consultation opinion was the 'we don't want any of that affordable housing here', with wholly inappropriate references to anybody from more that 5 miles away and directly related to local crime rates that were evidently solely the province of such housing. Last December at a similar exercise the bigotry and bile vented on hapless 'outcomers' was almost too much to stand. I had to walk away from one such onslaught from a primary school teacher for goodness sake. What the hell is he/she teaching our kids? I've noticed that this sort of thing is edging into public expressions of views in planning committee meetings too.
I'm sure that there are sound and reasonable people out there who could be engaged enough to listen, consider a proposition and come to a reasoned decision one way or the other. No one minds a professional exchange of views, but in the general mass of humanity these people are few and far between as far as I'm concerned and tend not to engage in consultation processes for the very same reasons. They don't want to take the flack either. Planning Officers and committee members are going to have to be increasingly resilient and I feel for them.
Localism has its good points. The aims are admirable. It's just that it relies upon local people adopting a pragmatic and balanced stance in approaching development issues. Sadly I doubt this situation will be universal.
So, if otherwise acceptable development is allowed on sound planning grounds, local opposition will feel cheated and impotent and potentially ignored. If it's refused then planning by appeal will return to being the norm - and so the lifecycle of planning turns once again. I've been there before. And planning will take longer, cost more and be just as challenging.
Plus ca change. Plus c'est la meme chose.
Right. I'm off for a lay down with an ice block on my head, ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
