New clause 51 - Chief planning officer
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
10:30 am
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I was not going to come back, because I do not want to prolong our debate, but, as the Minister has invited me to do so, I shall.
In an ideal world, where everything is black and white, what the Minister said would be 100 per cent. true. The problem is that big commercial cases are not black and white; they are grey. That is the purpose of allowing appeals. When a planning officer makes a recommendation on a controversial application that
may or may not conform entirely to the plan, he cannot be sure on which side an inspector will come down when making his decision. That is why the officer's professionalism and judgment are absolutely on the line in controversial cases, particularly those that go to appeal. That is why chief planning officers need such protection. They undertake important and delicate decisions on behalf of the community.