Below will be the press statement sent out from Fenland District Council in respect and response to the Governments implementation of new planning laws and regulation.
‘Local Democracy’ has been eroded.
Now that some 90/95 % of applications that may have been brought to FDC’s planning committee for determination will NO longer happen –
All if not most will be determined by delegated power by planning officers.
Now just to clarify, planning officers are highly qualified and mostly experienced, however ‘local’ knowledge in planning matters they do not process.
This now brings me to ‘why’ it is even more relevant now, that members of the public are aware of the importance of your/our own Whittlesey Town Council Planning Committee.
However there are issues …..
(1) All councillors are ‘volunteers’ at Parish/Town level, receive little training on planning matters, some have the experience of being a District Councillor and ‘may’ have had some training.
(2) Some Councillors do not or have not lived in the Whittlesey area, they will be severely
restricted in their ‘lack’ of local knowledge.
From now on……It is vitally important that residents/businesses look at planning applications.
They can and should contact either their local councillor or one that is part of WTC’s planning committee.
The WTC planning committee maybe they only way to ‘influence’ on planning terms applications that come to our town and villages.
