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Barker report considers future of planning
A MAJOR review of English planning laws published yesterday by the economist Kate Barker has been received, as would be expected, with mixed emotions by various voluntary organisations operating in the countryside.
One of the most popular questions has been: why have the Government invited a relatively-unknown economist to study the complexities of land-use and rural building development?
Her recommendations are part controversial, part anodyne. She speaks up for the protection of important wildlife sites but believes more development should be allowed in the green belt. One suggestion is quiet revolutionary: she believes that local residents who oppose new development could be paid by the developers to drop their objections.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England described the latter suggestion as "bribery" and said the report was "Barking up the wrong tree."
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, on the other hand, welcomed the idea that important wildlife sites should be protected. And the Country Land and Business Association, one of the Government's most outspoken critics, agreed with suggestions that future rural development should include more business premises to create new jobs, rather than being used solely for new housing.
- Our countryside commentator, John Sheard, will take a more detailed and outspoken look at the Barker report in A Week In The Country this Friday.
Your views:
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I spent my youth and early adulthood in south London. We were on the edge of the green belt - land that was sacrosanct. It enabled us to feel comfortable that natural land was on our doorstep and would remain so. The idea of building on the green belt is appalling.
Here in the Dales there is so much natural landscape we may take it for granted. Down in London and the south the population and the wildlife need protecting from the constant money-grabbing greedy development mania that is the predominant culture.
The relaxing of planning regulations and building on green belt land will ruin an already over-populated, crowded part of England and people in search of peace will put yet more pressure on beautiful quiet spaces such as the Dales.
Marion Armstrong - Settle, North Yorkshire
