Planning for the right homes in the right places

In a remarkable show of cross-party agreement, last Thursday the members of Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's Licensing & Planning Policy Committee unanimously approved the council officers' recommended response to the Department of Commnities and Local Government's consultation "Planning for the right homes in the right places" with only minor editorial changes.

What makes this so noteworthy is the fact that the agreed response robustly rejects the government's proposals.

In the course of debate, attention was drawn to a paragraph in the Foreword from the Secretary of State reading:

"Nobody likes indiscriminate, unplanned and unwelcome development. But most of us are willing to welcome new homes if they're well-designed, built in the right places, and are planned with the co-operation of the local community. To win the support of local residents, we have to build homes people want to live alongside as well as in."

The problem identified was that the proposals in the consultation would actually serve to actively prevent the council from doing this.

It was also agreed that a copy of the council's response should be published on their website and issued via a press release.