Councillor, what goes on in your head?

A Councillor on a Planning Committee once trashed a 12-month traffic survey by proudly stating that he went down to a roundabout on the A road next to the site for an hour on the previous Sunday afternoon and counted the cars… He then came up with a mathematical formula that projected the traffic that will be generated by the proposed development and announced to the Committee that the traffic survey (carried out by qualified highways engineers over 12 months) was out by 27,000 journeys a day or 9.85 million journeys a year. The Committee rejected the application on these grounds… unanimously… Oh and did I mention the development was for 75 new homes?

It’s the Community Communications Partnership’s seventh anniversary this week and it gave me the opportunity to reflect on why I set up this service in the first place.

It was very seldom that developers approached Councillors to talk to us about their plans. And quite often when they did, it wasn’t in a meaningful way… It was usually someone who pitched up and sat there with a bit of paper and bullet points and told me a load of rubbish about why their plans were great. There was NO opportunity for a debate. The developers were NOT in the slightest interested in my views or what my community may need or say. I did once lose my rag and asked the poor unsuspecting person who came to see me if they had ever stood for election… of course they hadn’t so they had NO idea what I would face at the next election. They were also then very surprised that I didn’t back their plans and it was in fact one of the few occasions I spoke against a planning application (and I did get it refused by the committee).

The problem is that as Councillors you do see a huge number of planning applications and I will be honest; they do blur into one occasionally. You are presented with line drawings and a load of technical gumpf that doesn’t actually help Councillors to make an informed decision.

Councillors are there to represent the views of the people who voted them in… yes they have a duty to ensure development happens, but they do also have a duty to make sure that their communities are served well so that they get elected again at the next election. When Councillors are simply left to figure out what you want to do on their own, they go out on a Sunday to a roundabout and count cars and come up with alternative facts.  

The same goes for the local communities where you want to do your development. If you don’t tell them how you are going to ensure that their lives aren’t ruined by your plans I can assure you that a NIMBY will tell them why and how to object to you.

So, next time you wonder how the Councillor came up with crazy ideas, ask yourself this: “Did I make sure they knew what I wanted to do?”

Call me and I can help you!

Henry

07736121014