Tag Archives: Planning

Sowing Bricks

The Conservatives, one-time party of the countryside, continue to plot their destructive, and self-destructive, course. Planning Minister Nick Boles told Newsnight this week that he wants to concrete-over 1,500 square miles, twice the area of Greater London, though he didn’t seem quite sure of the figures. Never mind. A million acres. Or thereabouts. Did heContinueContinue reading “Sowing Bricks”

Winners & Losers

Writers on Bristol, from the Rev. George Heath in the 18th century to Bryan Little in the 20th, have seen in it ‘the London of the West’, a city that would dearly love to outshine its larger rival but is not above copying its every move. So ‘a Boris for Bristol’ stands firmly in thatContinueContinue reading “Winners & Losers”

The Democracy Haters

“He did not know her name, but he knew that she worked in the Fiction Department. Presumably – since he had sometimes seen her with oily hands and carrying a spanner – she had some mechanical job on one of the novel-writing machines.”George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-FourOrwell’s technicians at Minitrue work for David Cameron these days,ContinueContinue reading “The Democracy Haters”

Bye Bye Beauty

Last week saw the first results published from the 2011 census of England (& Cornwall) & Wales. (We’ll call that ‘ECW’ for short.) The results are interesting both for what they say and what they don’t. There’s a gap of maybe a few million who aren’t included and therefore have to be estimated. It’s anContinueContinue reading “Bye Bye Beauty”

Review of 2011

Every year when we submit our accounts to the Electoral Commission we are also required to provide a ‘Review of Political Activities’ covering the year just gone.The 2011 Review has recently been forwarded to the Commission and here is what it says:“With no General Election in 2011, activity was less intense than last year butContinueContinue reading “Review of 2011”

Building a Worse World

We didn’t ask for the National Planning Policy Framework. We pointed out that a government actually committed to localism wouldn’t issue detailed instructions on how local powers are to be used; it would get out of the control freakery business altogether.Nevertheless, the NPPF arrived, on Tuesday, amidst much trepidation. Environmental groups, alarmed by the slash-and-burnContinueContinue reading “Building a Worse World”

Tackling the Taboos

“There are those who say the system is broke. It’s not. That’s how it was built. It is there to make rich people richer.”  Bilbo GoranssonIn parts of Wessex, second homes are an epidemic. In the coastal communities of south Devon, including towns such as Salcombe, second homes and holiday lets now account for overContinueContinue reading “Tackling the Taboos”

One-Way System

“Localism is about liberating the natural desire of local communities to become more prosperous. The notion that communities choose decline and reject prosperity is perverse, wrong-headed and not based on evidence.”So says Eric Pickles. Two questions then for the obese obfuscator.If he’s that sure that local communities, left to themselves, will destroy their environment, acceptingContinueContinue reading “One-Way System”

A Rock and a Hard Place

For those who value our environment, and those who care about the future, there is a distinct lack of choice on offer from the London parties. The Tories and their glove puppet want to turn the planning system into a developers’ charter, telling us that localism doesn’t, after all, do what it says on theContinueContinue reading “A Rock and a Hard Place”