Naked commercial greed meets Stalinist control

Raptus regaliter

Thank you, Leo, for speaking up for frustrated local councillors everywhere.

Charlie

Morris said Labour will build the Tories out of London. Much of Labour's housing development is not about improving the quality of housing of the working class such as refurbishment of property they live in, but gerrymandering . Much of the 1960s new towns are Labout strongholds within a Tory/Liberal areas. The inability of Labour to support manufacturing and refurbish homes where people want to live is a betrayal of the working class. In the Pathfinder areas many of the houses could be refurbished. People would remain in their communities . The money could be spent on training and supporting R and D in order to encourage development of our manufacturing. The services for a new home - drains, water and gas pipes electricity pipes for a greenfield site can cost £20k per house. It is much cheaper to build in area where these services exist.

Mitch H

I sympathise with you over the house next door - we've had a similar experience here only in our case it was the local Conservative borough council which rode roughshod over the wishes of residents and the parish council. Your political memory is short, Leo. i seem to recall a Tory PM (Margaret something or the other) who whittled down local councils' democratic powers, encouraged privatisation of services, and broke their revenue through the widely acclaimed and hugely popular poll tax.

Dr. Gautam Sen

Leo MCkinstry beware, anytime he pops his libertarian head into Stalinist Harrow, he will have a £ 60 parking ticket stapled to his head. Local people are only fit to be managed and finessed and of course good for funding gold-plated final-salary pensions local government pension schemes; 20% of all council taxes.
Remember those desirable retirement entitlements that Gordon Brown and New Labour now reserve for underemployed public servants, who vote Labour in the bargain and exactly for that reason!

roy roebuck

It's a terrace house, not terraced. Use English.

David Miers

I've been thinking along the same lines as those in your last paragraph Leo. This government is out to destroy the countryside for the white middle classes and populate it with 'diverse communities'. The countryside is the last bastion of our historical ancestry. Having ruined the cities with muliculturalism they now plan to do the same in the countryside. Where there are currently churches there will soon be mosques. You have been warned and you know who to vote for when you get the chance, and it's NOT socialist Dave and his Blue Labour party. Time is running out...

John A, London

I sometimes cynically wonder if these otherwise inexplicable planning approvals are given because then the applicant's cash rolls into the government coffers.
Application refused, no cash.

Jeff Chaplin

This Independent Planning Commission sounds exactly like the Ontario Municipal Board, used as an instrument of centralized decision making of just the type described in this article.

Roy

It all revolves around the diminishing available space. Scientist discovered aeon's ago that rats kept in closer and closer confined spaces indulged in the most diabolical behavior, including eating one another. Nobody would suggest this extreme would happen, but as people become more and more frustrated ... if things are not handled correctly ... bad habits would and are occurring. A balancing act has to be done. The land has to be used for food production and room for the catchment and collection of water. On the other side of the scale there has to be room for the vast amount of wast, room for recreation, room for housing and room for industry. You can not continually be extending your population. At some point you must say enough is enough. The blind continuation of immigration into these islands is screaming lunatic-ism, we do not have the open spaces of the USA in the 1800's. Sooner or later when an emergency turns up ... and it surely will ... you will start to think how stupid could we get. It's time the powers that be get off their high horses, did some careful arithmetic, and put into place a 'think tank' for some important changes in policy.

Alfred T Mahan

Ever since some bright ancient Greek came up with the concept of the separation of powers, it has been understood that the legislature, judiciary and executive arms of government have different roles and society is best when they are in balance. In Britain today, this is no longer the case: the executive has captured the legislature. No longer do we see MPs as defenders of our freedoms against an over-mighty state. Instead, they are career 'governers' with no other role in society (and very questionable skill sets to boot). Nowhere is this more true than in local government where the powers exercised by councils have expanded enormously but the power of councillors to overturn officials have dwindled. John Prescott's Code of Practice, for example, has allowed (or perhaps compelled) officials to prevent councillors speaking out on matters of concern - even if they were part of an election manifesto. There is no one to hold officials to account any more. All political parties have shied away from local government reform, but it is now urgent as our freedoms are whittled away one by one.