Planning a Marathon

[still catching-up here...]

My last Planning Committee on Thursday 9th November again attracted a large 'angry mob'* - one of those that requires an urgent import of extra chairs at the back, complaints about the PA system being too weedy (which it is), and anxious hovering around by Pat Merry and her security staff at the Civic Suite.

This time people came mainly about two controversial applications. The first was the Green Man pub site in Bromley Road (Whitefoot ward), which we ended up airing for 90 minutes and refused, against the planning officers' advice (but for what I thought were a sustainable set of reasons, so we may stand a good chance of winning the almost inevitable appeal against it). There was a lot of discussion of the profitability for the developer of various proportions of affordable housing, although I don't think it's useful to stray too far into that because it's not really a material planning issue (any more than the "it'll reduce the value of my property" from an objector next door to a development).

After that marathon we dealt with the flats/shop/cafe on the derelict Finches site at the back of Forest Hill station. Again there were a lot of issues to consider, but it was approved and I believe it represents a good compromise of design, profitable (enough) development and regeneration of that rather down-at-heel area. I'm waiting to see how quickly they can at least clean up the rubbish that's been dumped around the site.

And after that, there were still 4 or 5 items, with people waiting patiently to get their fair hearing - which they did. All credit to the worthy members and officers who stuck it out until well past 11pm!

[* 'Angry mobs': Cllr Chris Maines seemed to think that I was being somehow derogatory to the (minority of) people who take the trouble to come and participate in the Planning process, by referring in a previous post to what I thought was his bad behaviour for the benefit of, or to further excite the 'angry mob'. Far from it - I have the greatest respect for them as individuals with opinions, I know the power of getting a lot of like-minded people together to make a point (isn't that what political parties are supposed to be about?) and sometimes I'm even scared of them! But democratic decisions are not (or at least shouldn't be) made according to the number of people who turn out to protest, or those that shout loudest. And I still manage to retain a sense of humour, and write honestly about what I think, even though these still appear to be career-limiting traits to people who think politics is a career.]