Understand planning?

I don’t usually write here but I feel this is worth mentioning. When a planning authority (Rushcliffe Borough Council) says that people who are campaigning against a development “don’t understand the planning process”, well, that’s one thing because maybe that’s true? But when the county council echoes the concerns of the people campaigning against the development, does that mean that Nottinghamshire County Council also don’t understand the planning process? Because that is what has happened in the last few days.

Rushcliffe Borough Council put a spokesperson in front of the media a few days ago, who said to the entire world that the Save Nottingham Airfield campaigners and Tollerton Parish Council “didn’t understand the planning process” and the sub-message here was these people had the temerity to criticise RBCs planning department (and the SPD they published for public feedback) therefore these critics didn’t understand the planning process.

Except the problem is the planning process seems to be changing so rapidly that even RBC don’t understand what’s going on. Let’s be crystal clear, when RBC published the SPD RBC said it was a “take it or leave it”: RBC said there would be no second draft. Now, it appears certain officers in RBC are openly telling certain councillors that the SPD might be “open for discussion and remediation” (their words not mine) after all.

Less than 24 hours after that meeting occurred, Nottinghamshire County Council stepped out to criticise RBCs planning department in general and the SPD in particular for being so incomplete it was actually a pile of nonsense (I’m paraphrasing again, but the intent behind the message is unmistakeable). So, using the message that RBC put out to the media just 2 days previously (about the Save Nottingham Airfield campaign and Tollerton Parish Council) are RBC going to wheel out a spokesperson to say that Nottinghamshire County Council don’t understand the planning process either? That would be dreadfully embarrassing for someone because Nottinghamshire County Council is both the Highways Authority and the Flood Authority for the entire county!

I feel sure that people looking at RBC must be wondering what the hell is going on over here and there are those of us on the ground who are wondering the same thing. It seems that the planning department have gone rogue and they are wildly out of control, and are making rules (amongst other things) up as they go along. It also seems that the councillors and the council’s senior officers do not have control over what some of their officers are up to. I wonder why?