The Gazette 1975

to Central Government. In the event his strategy had gone completely awry. It had taken six months to hammer out a plan which satisfied all the officials, only to find that the elected representatives felt deprived in some way because they recognised the plan as a fait accompli and thought they were merely being asked to ruhl>er stamp it. They demonstrated their independ- ence by throwing out the application. At that time planning appeals to the Minister of Housing and I.ocal Government were taking about a year to decide. The developer could not wait that long as he had paid a great deal of money for the land. Although the ease of Roijco and the Hillingdon Borough Council had not then been decided there was already some authority for the belief that a n unreasonable decision made without authority- would be quashed in the High Court. Accord- •»gly I wrote to the Town Clerk of the Planning Authority and told him I was considering the institu- tion of legal proceedings against the Council. I also reminded him that in the event of the proceedings being successful and costs being awarded against the Authority some of the members of the Committee could finish up by being personally liable for the legal costs. I offered to attend a Council meeting and address the Council or the Planning Committee. This offer was accepted and in fact I attended a full meeting °f the Council and explained why I thought their decision was a wrong one. With the background of consultation bv the appellants' advisers with officers °f the Local Authority and carefully prepared plans by professional architects the members should not have refused the application in the way they did. Under- standably they were reluctant to go along with this line of argument. To say the least such a proposition wa s unpleasing to the ears of Councillors who valued the importance of their position. They eventually asked me to leave them while |hey considered what I had said and to my 'ntense relief they finally decided to change their minds and give consent. If they had called my bluff I do n °t know whether I could have confidently advised a " approach to the High Court. If we had gone to a ppeal I am reasonably confident that the Minister Would have allowed the appeal hut that would have "leant a very expensive delay. I quote that example t o demonstrate the fact that some planning decisions a lthough given locally by the elected representatives a r e greatly influenced by the paid professional and technical officers. In considering the question of the participation of !°cal people in the decision making process itself it ,s necessary to look beyond the comparatively simple a nd well tried process of administration through local c °unc.ils and committees consisting of elcctcd repres- entatives. For some time there has been pressure from a number of quarters to allow and to encourage direct Public participation at all levels of the decision making P r ocess. Mr. Jim Ivers, the Director General of the incorporated Law Society of Ireland has been kind enough to send me a number of newspaper rejiorts a bout activities in this country which demonstrate the P°int I have in mind very dearly. In England there a r c a number of types of planning applications, some

of which arc commonly known as "bad neighbour" activities which have to l>c advertised in the local newspaper and on the site. The list of such activities is not specified in the Town and Country Planning Act itself hut by statutory instrument. The list started in a modest way hut the latest edition (1973) contains nine separate classes of development and is quite far reaching. Local Planning Inquiries Procedure and Pressure Groups In the cases so specified the Local Planning Authority arc required, when determining any application, to take into account any representations relating to that application. It must follow that public reaction to a proposal may have a marked effect on the ultimate decision. Matters for example of great economic sig- nificance could be frustrated by a wave of local protest. Sometimes local protests are marshalled bv enthusiastic- opponents of a proposed development who virtually ensure that a planning refusal is issued. In a democratic society where the decision makers depend on local votes for their positions of power it is not surprising that they are extra sensitive to organised protests of local people. One of the consequences must l>e a tend- ency to issue refusals in such cases more or less as a safety measure. This results in more planning appeals with more local inquiries. It also increases the number of cases where decisions are not taken locally at all hut by the Secretary of State. On an appeal against a planning refusal the Local Planning Authority or the appellants can ask for a hearing which normally takes the form of a local inquiry. If the matter is one of interest in the neighlxmrhood the local inquiry gives a splendid opportunity for public participation. Action groups, Rate-payers Associations and similar bodies either spring up overnight or spring to life after a period of inactivity. Very often they have a marked influence on the decision finally reached. Whether such influence is for good is another matter. There are a number of very important areas like city centres all over England which have lain derelict for years, partly as a result of the activities of such groups. Whilst it is difficult to produce an ideal plan, suitable for all tastes, for dealing with an important redevelopment area it is comparatively easy to mount a devastatingly destructive criticism of any scheme produced. A powerful civic society supported by historians, architects and lawyers can be expected to have a fair chance of success if they determine to frustrate a proposal for development of an area which is in the public eye. I have mentioned sites like city centres but other examples are proposed airfields, fuel depots or sites for building oil rigs in remote rural places. Public participation at inquiries into this sort of development often includes earnest and undoubtedly sincere groups of citizens collectively de- scribing themselves as Preservation Societies. The major- ity of such societies are dominated not, as one would expect, by natives of the area who depend on it for their livelihood, but people who live in distant towns or even in another country but who may have holiday homes or some less tangible interest in the area threatened by the proposed development.