New planning laws will remove Eastbourne residents’ rights to object to developments

The head of Eastbourne’s planning committee has warned that a proposed government overhaul of the system will see more building work in areas where local residents will have little say on developments.
Cllr Jim Murray  25th May 2011 E21169M SUS-190417-151922001Cllr Jim Murray  25th May 2011 E21169M SUS-190417-151922001
Cllr Jim Murray 25th May 2011 E21169M SUS-190417-151922001

Jim Murray, the chairman of the council’s planning committee, spoke out as the government issued a white paper on changes to the planning process across the country.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says the ‘Planning for the future’ consultation proposes reforms of the planning system to “streamline and modernise the planning process, bring a new focus to design and sustainability, improve the system of developer contributions to infrastructure, and ensure more land is available for development where it is needed”.

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But Mr Murray, who represents Hampden Park, said the changes will give more weight to developers and less to local people.

He said, “Our local and experienced planning committee works cross-party to welcome innovative and high-quality developments to our town, to work towards government housing targets, and to protect our heritage and beautiful buildings. Localism is what makes this happen. But recently, we have seen central government changing the rules to give more weight to developers at the expense of local people. Government has forced through the demolition of the Victorian Kempston Villas and the over-development of Meads Brow, against the will of the planning committee, officers and residents.

“The new proposals are going to challenge the powerful tradition of localism even further, forcing more building works in areas that residents deem undevelopable. They include reducing or removing the rights of residents to object to applications near them; granting automatic rights for developers to build on land identified by central government as ‘for growth’, rather than by local residents; and removing Section 106 payments to cover the cost of enhancing local infrastructure to support developments and create affordable housing and replacing them with a national levy that goes to central government. “It’s important the people of Eastbourne realise central government is looking to take planning control away from local communities and risk unsustainable developments in our town.”

Mr Murray called on the government to bring in legislation forcing developers to build out their planning permissions first. There are 60 due to go ahead in town.

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