Right to planning power stolen
The replacement of commercial premises and even large houses with high-density apartment blocks is becoming widespread, and alarmed residents are blaming their councillors and planners for allowing this, although in many cases the authorities are powerless to stop these developments.
Several years ago the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) issued recommendations that urban sites should be developed to higher densities, since when developers have frequently submitted plans for developments which disregard our councils' recommendations for amenity, density, parking and traffic congestion.
If the developer will not negotiate on these matters, planning permission is usually refused. The developer will then appeal to the minister who will send a planning inspector to visit the site and hear all the arguments both for and against the refused development.
The minimum standards required by the ministry's planning inspectorate is very low, and they will often override the council's refusal and allow for instance a development with perhaps no amenity space and with only 1.3 parking spaces per dwelling.
The reasoning seems to be that in high-density urban areas, with good public transport, comparatively few residents should need cars, and having to park several streets away will discourage future car ownership and justify public transport improvements.
This policy works well in high density city areas such as London, and our government has apparently decided that it is also suitable for suburban areas such as Stourbridge
Local planning policy has been largely taken out of the hands of local planners and councillors and transferred to central government.
David Bates, Tipton Road, Dudley.
