Matthew Riddle Slams The IPC in Recent South Gloucs Council Meeting

Matthew realises how stupid this planning procedure is! 

What will happen if there is a change of Government

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Here is the motion I recently proposed at  the meeting of South Gloucestershire Council. It was approved, except that a majority of councillors actual voted to remove the two bullet points coloured red.

 

Also attached is my speech I made in proposing the motion. I will also update you in due course of what I else I have been doing on this important issue.

 

Kind Regards

 

Matthew

 

Cllr Matthew Riddle 

South Gloucestershire Councillor for the Severn Ward

Councillor Matthew Riddle Proposed and Councillor Brian Allinson Seconded that:

This Council:

• • Notes the Government’s major overhaul of the planning system for major

infrastructure projects introduced through the Planning Act 2008;

• • Expresses specific concern at the creation of the new independent Infrastructure

Planning Commission (IPC), which will hear evidence about, as well as take the final

decision on, major infrastructure projects;

• • Believes that decisions of such importance should not be taken by an unelected and

unaccountable new quango, but by elected officials, only after affected local

communities that had their voices heard and listened to;

• • Notes the implications for potential major infrastructure projects in South

Gloucestershire, including projects to harness the tidal energy of the River Severn,

as well as a new nuclear power station at Oldbury;

• • Requests that the Leader of the Council write to the Prime Minister calling for the

undemocratic IPC to be scrapped and for the approval process for major

infrastructure projects to be fair, transparent and democratic.

• • Is committed to ensuring as far as possible that the approval process for any major

infrastructure projects affecting South Glos. is fair, transparent and democratic and

therefore takes very seriously the special status of Local Authorities in the process;

• • Requests Officers to prepare, as a matter of urgency, for Cabinet approval and

publication, a plan of action:

1) for involving residents in responding to the consultation on the recently

published Nation Planning Statements, giving priority to proposals for a new

nuclear power station at Oldbury;

2) for working closely with the applicants for the Oldbury power station to ensure

full community involvement before the application is submitted;

3) for the preparation of the Scoping Report for the Environmental Impact

Assessment and the Local Impact Report;

• • Requests officers to regard this action plan as a pilot for approaching other National

Planning Statements and applications to the IPC.

• • Notes the planning fee for the application will all be allocated to the IPC and

therefore requests the Leader of Council to write to the Prime Minister calling upon

him to allocate the necessary funding to enable S.G.C. to fulfil these new

responsibilities without detriment to its other services.

 Cllr Riddle's speech : 'Our underlying preference should always be for democratic accountability. That means that wherever possible, Ministers should execute their responsibilities through their departments, and for decisions to be taken at the lowest appropriate level.

However, recent changes to the planning regime for major infrastructure projects, including the creation of the IPC is another example of the growing quango state.

Clearly, we need speedier outcomes than the current planning process produces, but we must at the same time ensure proper democratic accountability.

Far from speeding up the planning process, the IPC – made up on unaccountable commissioners - will quickly become bogged down in legal challenges and so Ministers’ sacrificing of proper democratic checks and balances will have been done for nothing.

The Government’s own Impact Assessment found that the IPC procedure will cost ten times more than current arrangements. This is the sort of exorbitant cost that we now expect from Government quangos.

There would need to be a transition period as the IPC is abolished - the consideration of pending planning applications should be transferred to the Secretary of State, using the Planning Inspectorate to run the inquiries. This would avoid the need for applicants to re-apply and start the process from scratch as the IPC is abolished.

The concerns about the Government’s planning changes that I raise today are not just mine – but are also shared by many independent organisations that make up the Better Planning coalition, which includes CPRE, The National Trust, Friends of the Earth, RSPB and Civic Trust, which between them have the support of more than 5 million people.

At a time when public trust in politics is so fragile, plans to eradicate proper democratic involvement in major planning applications will just fuel further public cynicism and disillusionment.

I am appealing to all South Gloucestershire councillors to unite on the need for the Government to scrap this IPC quango and ensure local people are central to the approval process for any major new infrastructure project, in South Gloucestershire and across the country.'