New Clause 27 - Qualified third party right of appeal
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
10:00 am
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I hear what the Minister says, but I believe that my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight is on to a good point, as he often is. The problem is not the system but the perception of that system. In a controversial case in which the local authority granted itself planning permission, there was a general feeling afterwards that local people had not had the opportunity to object. Of course they had, but people do not know what their rights are and touch the planning system only when it affects them in a controversial case such as that. We need a system in which such cases are more widely advertised, and there is more opportunity for public meetings and for people to go along to the local planning committee and have as much time as they want to put their case. Very often people go to the planning committee and are told, ''Oh, only a spokesman can address the committee.'' People's rights are being taken away and they do not even have an opportunity to address the planning committee. Thereby they feel very aggrieved—