LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

‘Disaster’ planning law opposed 

Environmental groups are campaigning against planning laws they claim will lead to “faceless bureaucrats” taking decisions on major projects.

Opponents of the government’s Planning Bill say it sweeps away local accountability for developments such as motorways and airports.

Instead, they want people to have more say on the decisions that affect them.

The government says planning laws need reform to meet long-term challenges, such as those posed by climate change.

Expensive

The bill, currently going through Parliament, aims to replace the current system of holding a sometimes lengthy and expensive public inquiry each time a major infrastructure project is proposed, such as an airport or a power station.

Instead there will be a series of National Policy Statements from the government, setting out the case for what ministers call “nationally significant infrastructure”.

The statements would be used as a guide by an independent, but unelected, Planning Commission, which will decide in future where these proposed developments will go.

People living near the proposed projects would have limited opportunities to object.

The government argues that the reform is needed to ensure the planning system can “meet the long-term challenges we face as a society.”

Speeded up

It says the need to tackle climate change, by building eco-friendly homes or power stations, means that the planning process needs to be speeded up.

But the Planning Disaster Coalition, which include Friends of the Earth, the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England says the change will make a “mockery” of democracy, by taking away the rights of people to have their say on developments in their local area.

The Coalition has produced a map highlighting the location of over 100 new developments – including nuclear power stations, airports and wind farms – that it says could be forced through if the government gets its way over changes to the planning system.

‘Unaccountable’

Opposition to the Bill is also growing within Parliament.

In May, 63 Labour MPs signed a motion opposing plans to set up an independent commission to decide on major infrastructure.

The motion’s sponsor, Labour MP Clive Betts, said he found it “worrying” that controversial projects like nuclear power stations and motorways could be decided upon by an “unaccountable, unelected commissioner”.

BBC News

9 June 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon