Friday, 25 April, 2008
 | These new quangos will be bad for local democracy |
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Residents are rightly concerned about the Government’s proposals to remove Green Belt protection around Guildford through the South East Regional Plan. But the public should also be aware of new laws before Parliament that will create a series of new quangos that look set to impose unsustainable development and override local opinion.
These include an unelected Homes & Communities Agency, with powers to seize land, enter private property and act as its own planning authority. An unelected Infrastructure Planning Commission will take control of planning permissions for large developments like airports, power stations, motorways, sewage plants and even incinerators.
And in a game of musical chairs, the housing and planning powers of the unloved South East England Regional Assembly are to be transferred to the equally unwanted and unaccountable South East England Development Agency. This raises the prospect of further environmental damage imposed through the regional planning regime.
Needless to say, none of these expensive and autocratic Labour quangocrats will be directly accountable to local residents or to Parliament.
Cllr Sheridan Westlake
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