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"COUNCIL IS STILL MUCKING ABOUT WITH OUR APPLICATION"

In an article o­n the Times o­nline website o­n Sunday (1 October), writer Angus McCrone looked at the planning rules quagmire that stifles development in Britain.

He highlights the case of a Shepway planning application which has taken eight months, some five months longer than the three months promised by the District Council.

McCrone writes: "In West Hythe, Kent, o­ne manufacturer is seething because he said his local council, Shepway, had taken eight months to ponder a request to renew planning permission o­n a piece of land — after originally promising an answer within three months.

Richard Hindry, managing director of JR Cabinet Makers, said: “We want to invest £1.2m and employ 13 more people, but we need to move to a new site to do this. Some £38,000 of expense for us and 146 e-mails later, the council is still mucking about with our application.”

Shepway said the proposed plot was part of a much larger area that requires an environmental impact assessment but, despite this, its “officers have agreed to take a more flexible approach by agreeing to discussions with JR Cabinet Makers”.

Editor's note:- The EU Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment of the effects of projects on the environment was introduced in 1985 and was amended in 1997. The directive was amended again in 2003 following the 1998 signature by the EU of the Aarhus Convention on public participation in environmental matters. The issue was enlarged to the assessment of plans and programmes by the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive in 2001 which is now in force and establishes a mix of mandatory and discretionary procedures for assessing environmental impacts.