152 Councillors from Surrey and Hampshire call for government to rethink planning system changes
Proposed changes would see the country divided into 3 zones
More than 2,000 Councillors have signed a letter calling on the government to rethink the proposals.
96 Hampshire Councillors and a further 56 from Surrey have signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick, calling on him to abandon planning system changes.
CPRE, the countryside charity and Friends of the Earth are joining more than 2,000 local councillors in the call to rethink the plans.
Phillipa Oppenheimer from CPRE, the countryside charity, explains:
"The new planning proposals are the biggest change to the planning system since 1947.
"They will cut up England into 3 zones, 2 of which won't allow people to have a say on what is done in their local area.
"This will lead to devastating outcomes to local areas, like the loss of green spaces which have been so important to people recently with the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns."
In the letter, councillors warn that the proposed changes to planning will undermine the trust that the public has in the planning system and ‘could radically reduce protections for nature, local green spaces and fail to tackle climate change'.
The councillors and groups also believe this would see a loss of local democracy, scrutiny and accountability which would result in worse outcomes for communities.
The letter goes on to highlight the need for a strong local planning system to support sustainable development, community cohesion and a healthy environment but highlights that the government’s proposals as currently set out ‘will not achieve these goals'.
Naomi Luhde-Thompson, senior planner at Friends of the Earth, said:
"It’s clear to so many MPs, councillors and local communities that the Prime Minister’s vision for decision-making on development in England is not one that guarantees local control and centres local voices.
"The privatisation of the planning system so far, where so many decisions are no longer made in principle by councils but by developers, like the conversion of offices into homes, tells us what this government thinks of local control.
"The proposals in the white paper will drown out community voices, stifle local democratic responsibility, and weaken legal protections for the environment."