|
|
 |
| |
All parties
should work on planning
• This is an open letter to the leaders of the main
political parties involved in the 2006 Camden borough council
elections to be held on Thursday 4 May.
As you will see from our newsletter on planning in Camden, there
is widespread concern in the community about the current operation
of our local authority’s planning processes.
We all know there is a widespread shortage of good planning
officers, and the council taxpayer is resistant to any heavier
burdens.
This society is therefore asking all the main political parties,
currently on the council, to examine critically how they can
improve one of the aspects of the council’s work that impinges
most closely on so many of its citizens, often with lasting
impact.
The logistics of the development control sub-committee have
been improved, somewhat. However, they would be improved still
further when all the verbal interchanges are fully audible,
all the time, and not just to other councillors and officers.
To go into detail, we would ask the new administration:
• To adopt a programme of continuing planning education
for residents and potential developers, conservation area advisory
committees (CAACs) and the press so that all understand the
modus operandi under which the process has to operate.
• To ensure the actual operation of the sub-committee is
made more user/participant friendly.
• To determine that all planning applications delegated
to officers are still discussed in public, with the latter having
the right of audience.
• To ensure that not only should professional advisers
be informed of the sub-committee’s decisions but so also
should the applicant him/herself.
• To demand that much greater effort be made to notify
neighbours of all planning applications to the council, with
that term generously interpreted. The council should reconsider
its decision to no longer to publish in the local newspapers
the details of its main applications.
• Finally to support the request of the Heath and Hampstead
and Highgate Societies, together with ourselves, for Camden’s
planning processes, especially in conservation areas, to be
the subject of a comprehensive scrutiny panel review.
Martin Morton
Chairman, Camden Civic Society,
Hillway, N6
|
| |
|
|
|
