The Gazette 1975

Planning Control Lecture Address by Mr. Gordon Hyde of Enfield, Middlesex and Chairman of the Standing Committee of The Law- Society on Town and Country Planning. Ti 1 lie talk this evening is on the topical subject of j ublic Participation in Town and Country Planning', -«leal Planning Authorities in England (and in your u ntry) who have the power of deciding on planning Pplication.s for planning perniissidn have to make such Visions within the terms prescribed by the Acts of ar lianicnt creating the power.-The powers of such Authorities in planning matters include the power (in ac t the rlnr\-1 m nm**.-,™ • ..mi* show duty) to prepare pland covering their areas ing proposals for development. The plans, which ^tiniatcly require sanction from the Secretary of State "r the Department of the Environment, are known as j Cve tepment Plans. Development Plans generally re- to the area of the Local Authority responsible for le 'r preparation but they are based on regional and ''ational strategies. Such strategies are formulated and Promulgated by Central Government. I he Town and Country Planning Acts require that applications for planning permission have to be decided V reference to the provisions of the Development a n and any other material consideration. It follows 1a f the powers of Local Planning Authorities in hiding s u c | , applications are limited in the wav '•«scribed. This means that in applying their minds a planning application members of a local Planning • uthority cannot decide the application by taking • f n t 0 account matters irrelevant to the Authority's - n c t ' ° n as a Planning Authority. A recent example g this is the English case of the R. v. the London 0r ough of Hillingdon ex parte Royco Homes Limited ^ (1974) 2 All. E. R. 643 which has caused a certain "mount of excitement to constitutional and planning aw yers. It appears that the Council of the >ndon Borough of Hillingdon, as local Planning ' u mority, granted planning permission for residential j ^ t e p m e n t of land owned by private developers but •J doing so attached conditions to the planning consent lc h were designed to restrict the usefulness of the ^mi s s i on t o local Authority type houses and to ensure a t the houses could only be occupied by Local ^ t ho r i ty tenants. On an application to the High c j.°! ,rt instigated by the developers the offending con- 'hon s ^ e r e hg jj t o ^ u j t r a y j r e s a n c j t j i e p i a n n i n g Permission was quashed. The Lord Chief Justice said r j e dec ision "was a fundamental departure from the jjmts of ownership and it was so unreasonable that no a ? - Authority, appreciating its duty and properly ff y,n S itself to the facts, could have reached it". *vin - C a s e ls a n e x a m p i e o f t , i e wa V t , i a t t l i e c ° u r t s its l n t e r f e r e a Planning Authority that exceeds is ^ ^ 1 " 8 - In the more usual case, where the decision i t W , t ' l i n the prescribed powers of the Planning Author, a d a Pplicant does have a right of appeal against Stat IS '° n- S u c h a n a PP e a l l i es t o t , i e SerreteD' o f C a r ? f °r the Department of the Environment. It n e s with it the right to be heard Ijefore a person *

appointed by the Secretary of State which means, as we shall see, a local — and public — Inquiry. Decisions on planning applications are based on Development Plans and these, although pre- pared by Local Planning Authorities, owe their origin from regional strategy formulated by Central Govern- ment. As the ultimate right of appeal also lies to Central ( lovernment it looks as if Town and Countrv Planning in England begins and ends in Whitehall. This is of course far removed from the concept of planning being a locally administered function. Dealing with the question of whether planning decisions arc effectively made locally I think the answer is that they are. Whether or not, however, such decisions arc made by the local representatives of the people is a different matter. The decision on a planning application must be given within the now familiar limits specified in the Act i.e. in accordance with the provisions of the Development Plan or other material considerations. Planning Proposals must conform with the Development Plan In deciding a planning application the Lay Coun- cillor will need the guidance of the professionally qualified employees of the Authority who, apart from anything else, will have prepared the plan on which decisions arc given. The Councillor will be told whether in the opinion of the officials a particular proposal passes the first test of being in accordance with the pdovisions of the Development Plan and should there- fore be acceptable in principle. In most cases that it not a difficult decision if it merely means checking the Development Plan and the zoning pf the area. I was involved in a case of a plan for a complete residential development of an undeveloped site which was zoned on the Town Map as being available for that purpose. The plan finally submitted to the Planning Committee had been the subject of detailed and tedious negoti- ations with the officials for rather more than six months until finally a scheme had been produced which was considered satisfactory. By satisfactory I mean that it had passed the various tests applied to it by the differ- ent experts who considered it. This covered such matters as garage accommodation, design, size of gardens, density of development and proximity to the nearby trunk road. When the result of all this activity came before the Planning Committee accompanied by a recommendation, not surprising in view of the history, by the officials for approval the application was in fact rejected. The Planning Committee met in public and on the following day the local press reported that mem- bers of the Committee had looked aghast at this com- prehensive plan and described some of the proposed houses as looking more like rabbit hutches than houses. The developer came to seek my advice. He said that he had commissioned his Architects to leave no stone unturned to ensure a scheme which had the approval of all the officials so that there would be no delay arising from a planning refusal and subsequent appeal

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