Letter: Time to abolish planning rules?
Tuesday 16th November 2010, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: The decision to allow Tesco to continue selling non-grocery items in its store was recently described as “shambolic” by protesters, as reported in the Star and other press.
I would suggest that it is the planning system which is shambolic and should be completely abolished, giving businesses and individuals the right, within reason, to do what they like on their own sites.
How ridiculous to have a committee deciding on what sort of goods customers can buy from certain shops and paying expensive officers to go round snooping to see if they are selling, say, rolling pins in a food only shop!
If the Government really wants the country to prosper, then they should free everyone to do what they can to earn a living, without irksome rules or little Hitlers spying on them!
It is not that long ago that Sunday Trading prevented you buying anything on the Sabbath. Now it is a choice.
Village policemen too, haunted the local pubs to see if some wicked customer was having a crafty pint one minute after 10pm (pre 1963), and car lights had to be left on all night, flattening their battery, even in built up areas.
Mind you we have replaced those silly laws with littering offences, with snoopers employed to spot the odd matchstick dropper, prompted by the same funny old fuddy duddies who now worry about Tesco selling washing soda but not baking soda. Saddos I say!
Name and address supplied
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What’s so subversive about this letter that the author refuses to be identified?
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Perhaps they have used the planning system?
Despite attempts by the last government to prevent the corruption (sometimes politically motivated for personal reasons) that occurs in it,it continues to be a game rather than a staightforward administration of policy and peoples rights.
When I refer to corruption I do not necessarily mean from Tesco. The manipulation of ambiguous policy costs taxpayers a lot of money as well as businesses and individuals.
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Might as well abolish planning laws. Tesco and all the other big supermarket chains eventually get their own way. (Money talks, after all). Gypsies, travellers or whatever they call themselves knock up caravan sites with seeming impunity. (Must uphold the right of travellers not to travel, ‘human rights’ innit!!) Add on councils trying to make every road and street look like Toytown with multi-coloured so called traffic calming ‘safety measures’. Contrast this with the local taxpayers that have to pull down an extension because its 6inches too wide/high or can’t put a drop kerb outside their house etc etc. Do away with it all! The only winners appear to be the lawyers…
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Ridiculous idea, without the planning system half of Shropshire would now be covered with sprawling suburbia full of commuters in to Birmingham. Town centres such as Shrewsbury’s would be completely unnecessary as virtually every shop would be on an out of town retail park. That is of course dependent on whether Shrewsbury had any of its town centre left. Its the planning system that protects its historic buildings after all.
What the planning system needs is to be stengthened, design should be more important and most importantly people who aren’t educated in planning matters should not be allowed to decide on planning applications or policies.
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To “Name and address supplied”: I agree with you. Who needs planning rules? By the way, where do you live? I’d like to build a block of flats overlooking your back garden, open a strip club next door and a 24 hour auto repair shop over the road.
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Letter-writer. Are you trolling or just plain dim. Just because it doesn’t suit you now – doesn’t mean it won’t suit you in the future.
Don’t you realise we’re supposed to ‘be all in it together’ to paraphrase the current PM. Maybe, you think Thatchers ‘no such thing as society’ is right, but you’ll lose most with that.
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#4 Grey you are so right but those who protect the historic fabric do not necessarily have any training in design either unfortunately.
Conservation and preservation are one thing and design another.
I have noticed that the Railway Heritage Society have got their rebuilding of one wall of the old Abbey Foregate station granted permission.
I find it very difficult to see why the fact that a short lived railway company were able to build a train line right up to the Abbey, which is after all, a very important building,was anything to celebrate.
What a lot of taxpayers are not aware of is that whilst charities for the homeless and all sorts of very deserving causes are being denied council money this pathetic project is still going ahead at a cost of at least £130,000 which was allocated way back when SABC were in charge !!!!
Everytime I have driven past the scaffolding on this site I have thought, how many more years is that going to be up and who is paying for it?
I really think it is questionable that this money is spent on this and find it hard to believe many people are that interested.
If the society had raised the money themselves, fair enough, but they have not and I think our money should be spent on a more deserving cause.
It is going to be three times the cost of Quantum Leap which at least is more interesting.
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Here’s a useful report about why a few cheques and balances could be useful. I’m guessing that Anon’s bizarre ranting is less than serious but …http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/calling_the_shots.pdf
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Thanks Mike, very interesting.
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