The most thankless job in local government
When the Blair government set up the arrangements for directly-elected mayors and for council executives, they got some things right and others wrong.
One of the things they got right was to keep the decisions on individual planning applications away from Mayors and Executives and require that they be determined by a committee consisting largely or entirely of backbench councillors, meeting in public and not subject to a party whip.
(And yes, at least everywhere I have lived, anyone who has been to a reasonable number of such meetings will have seen councillors from all the main parties voting different ways often enough to tell you that the parties do respect that rule.)
Serving on those committees, whether they are called the Planning Committee, the Development control and regulation committee (as on CCC) the Planning Panel (as on Copeland BC) or anything else is the most thankless job in local government. The councillors on it will be unpopular whether they do an excellent job or a terrible job.
Every time they refuse an application, they will disappoint, and often infuriate, the people who wanted the facilities, homes, or jobs that it would bring. But when they approve an application they often annoy people who are worried (sometimes rightly) that it will overload local roads, put pressure on local schools, create noise and nuisance, or block their view.
Nearly everyone wants the good things development will bring. But most people wants it someone other than next to their home.
The job of a planning panel member is the perfect illustration that you cannot please everyone. And attacking these coucnillors is often seen as a quick win for a rival politician seeking election or re-election.
That happened yesterday in Copeland. I shall have more to say on this in the next few days.
One of the things they got right was to keep the decisions on individual planning applications away from Mayors and Executives and require that they be determined by a committee consisting largely or entirely of backbench councillors, meeting in public and not subject to a party whip.
(And yes, at least everywhere I have lived, anyone who has been to a reasonable number of such meetings will have seen councillors from all the main parties voting different ways often enough to tell you that the parties do respect that rule.)
Serving on those committees, whether they are called the Planning Committee, the Development control and regulation committee (as on CCC) the Planning Panel (as on Copeland BC) or anything else is the most thankless job in local government. The councillors on it will be unpopular whether they do an excellent job or a terrible job.
Every time they refuse an application, they will disappoint, and often infuriate, the people who wanted the facilities, homes, or jobs that it would bring. But when they approve an application they often annoy people who are worried (sometimes rightly) that it will overload local roads, put pressure on local schools, create noise and nuisance, or block their view.
Nearly everyone wants the good things development will bring. But most people wants it someone other than next to their home.
The job of a planning panel member is the perfect illustration that you cannot please everyone. And attacking these coucnillors is often seen as a quick win for a rival politician seeking election or re-election.
That happened yesterday in Copeland. I shall have more to say on this in the next few days.
Comments
It doesn't help when councillors get bad advice, which does sometimes happen although in my experience the majority of officers do their best to give good advice.
If anyone reading this has any evidence that anyone has been deliberately lying to councillors you should take that evidence to the council via the complaints or whistleblowing procedures or, if you don't think that will work, to the police.