August 2020 - A View from the Hill

August 21, 2020January 29, 2023

In the Eye of the Beholder? The Planning White Paper Has Big Risks for Local Democracy.

A shorter version of this post appears on the Sussex Bylines news website

Archery Road housing development - picture shows housing and flats under construction. — The Archery Road housing development resulted from a controversial planning application with many objections. In the future, will such developments not need permission at all?

Earlier this month, the government published ‘Planning for the Future’, a consultation White Paper on the future of the planning system, promising the biggest shake up since 1948 with a ‘fast track for beauty’ through the planning system. The proposals were immediately criticised by many, with the Royal Institute of British Architects branding them as ‘disgraceful’, and the Royal Town Planning Institute describing the White Paper as a ‘serious error’. So what exactly is proposed in the White Paper and how’s it different from the current planning system?

August 5, 2020January 29, 2023

Cost of COVID: Councils Can’t Cope

A similar version of this article is also published on the newly launched ‘Sussex Bylines’ news website:

www.sussexbylines.co.uk

Hastings Council street sweeping vehicles — How will councils continue to provide basic services with no money?

Dramatic cuts in income have left councils with big budget shortfalls, and no way to get the money they need to provide day-to-day services. Had the Covid-19 crisis happened back in 2010, there wouldn’t have been such a problem. Ten years of austerity have left councils in no fit state to cope.