Development Control — Policy and Practice - Trust Annual Report 1981
In early 1980 the DoE circulated this draft document. Its purpose, to suggest ways to speed up the development control process, is admirable. The methods it suggests are questionable, as is its basic premise that the planning system is seriously affecting the national economy. The Trust's views are that the pressures which have led to the development of our planning system have not eased. If anything they are greater. The Trust wrote to the DoE making the point that speeding up development control is a desirable end but not if it is at the expense of the quality of decision. The adoption of this circular will lead to an erosion of planning quality which in turn will lead to more noticeable defects in the environment for which 'The Planners' will be blamed. If, as a result, the planning system were to be further shorn of its power to be effective there would be a further deterioration in both the quality of planning and the environment. It may be thought that planning powers could be reinstated as the need for controls became more apparent, but this instability in an important system will not engender public confidence or attract the right sort of officers to serve it.