Let’s Get Britain Moving, says the British Chambers of Commerce on its website. Arcane planning laws are allowing councils to hold up transport schemes and in turn, the progress of business, the organisation claims. These laws must be reformed. The government seems inclined to agree and wants decisions on large building projects such as roads, airports and ports taken out of the hands of ministers (representing voters) and given to an unelected quango (representing itself). That means the likelihood of projects such as the expansion of Heathrow Airport could be more easily pushed through. And it means that the public campaign that stopped the Cliffe airport plan, and the public inquiry that scuppered port plans at Dibden Bay, may have had a different outcome.
Government reforms need radical changes if they are not to cause environmental harm: · First, decision-makers must be legally bound to safeguard the environment. · Second, the new decision-making body is undemocratic and unnecessary. An existing body, the trusted Planning Inspectorate, could be funded to advise ministers. · Third, all major development proposals must be subject to rigorous environmental assessments. · Fourth, changes must not weaken the wildlife protection currently provided by planning policies. Heather Mitchell campaigns for the RSPB on planning issues. She said: “We must be robust and determined in resisting the narrow-minded attempts of business to railroad environmental protection through changes to planning laws. “Now is a make or break time for planning law. Let’s see what needs saving first and not leave saving it until it’s too late.” Click here to find out what the RSPB is doing to combat attempts to weaken planning law.
And here for the British Chambers of Commerce.