Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Planning - what level of local involvement?
On page 3 an article is headlined 'Let local communities keep their say on planning' and highlights "Gordon Brown's plans to deny local people their say on planning and development".

What they fail to point out is that the proposed constitution for the unitary Wiltshire Council (which is being driven by the Conservatives at County Hall) does exactly that.

If the new council gets its way, it won't matter if your parish council objects to a planning application; a decision on the development will be made by council officers, not the elected planning committee. This is not how things currently operate at WWDC where no application can be given permission by council officers if the local parish council objects. This seems a massive retrograde step to me and is hardly, in my opinion, 'letting local communities have their say on planning'.

On Tuesday, via his web site, I e-mailed our prospective Conservative MP (Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones) for his view on this apparent contradiction of thoughts.

When/if I get a reply I will gladly post it here for all to see.