Campaign For Saving Wildlife And Green Areas

This is an interesting article, on trying to save 'green' areas from being raped by developers ......

National Trust | Planning

 

To be honest, I can see both sides of this argument.

On one hand, I don't want to see a brand new Asda smack bang in the middle of the moors, but on the other hand, planning laws are currently excessively restrictive to the point of being silly.

To give one example, I own a piece of land that is classified as agricultural. When my dad had it, he put up a couple of wooden sheds on there. One as a shelter for his livestock, the other to store animal feed in. The two small structures were built using materials that blended with the surroundings, they were built in a position where they were out of sight from anywhere the public were allowed to be, and were being used solely for agricultural purposes. He then applied for retrospective planning consent, and was promptly denied. He called in the planning officer and specifically asked how it should be designed such that permission was granted. The planning officer wasn't interested. He appealed, and lost. So the two small sheds were demolished. The livestock had to be sold because my dad figured it would be cruel to leave them on the land over winter with no shelter.

As far as I understand it, the newly proposed changes to planning regs isn't designed to let developers rape the landscape. I believe the rules will still be there that say that they have to make a good case for the need, have to meeting all the new environmental regulations, have to not change the general character of the area etc. It is right that people should scrutinise the new proposals, but it is wrong to jump to the conclusion that it gives the green light to wholesale rape of the landscape just because the national trust has floated that rumour.