LETTER: MPs should intervene
Communities in Horsham District are already besieged by developers. Imagine the harmful consequences should the right to determine major planning applications be taken away from the council. Developers and the Government acting through the Planning Inspectorate, not communities and their elected representatives, would decide where and when to build and the number of houses to be built.
That HDC’s right to determine applications and the communities right to be consulted is now at serious risk is extraordinary given that the Government, including Horsham MP Frances Maude, has insisted that the purpose of the Localism Act and National Policy Framework (NPPF) was ‘to put the power to plan back in the hands of communities’ and ‘that local people – the local authorities-must be at the heart of planning’.
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Hide AdWill the district’s two MPs Francis Maude and Nick Herbert intervene to ensure that Horsham District Council and the communities that they represent retain ‘the power to plan’ and ‘that local people – the local authorities’ – are at ‘the heart of planning’ – not developers, Government Ministers and the Planning Inspectorate?
Dr R F Smith
For and on behalf of CPRE Sussex-Horsham District