Public should be heard on planning issues

Audlem resident Greville Watts of the CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) (The website link that was here no longer works) , Crewe & Nantwich District, has a letter published in today's Chronicle. In it he argues that the public should have a right to speak at Development Control (i.e. Planning) meetings as is customary in many other areas. He says there is widespread concern that the public has so little influence on planning decisions. Indeed the Planning Act 2004 is partly intended to remedy this. The CPRE believes, Greville writes, that it is time for a comprehensive review of the way in which Development Control conducts its business.

The letter gives as an example the Development Control committee's visit to Audlem on 9th December in connection with Canalside (now called Moseley's) Yard. To the villagers present it was a wasted opportunity and even the amended plans for this contentious development could not properly be inspected on a cold roadside with traffic rushing past. A short indoors meeting with residents would have been much better before the final recommendations to the committee were made.

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