Community seems to have been badly served by Planning Authority

I was a member of the Planning Committee of Westminster City Council, the council which handles the most planning applications in the UK, for 13 years. The first job of planning officers was to understand clearly what any application entailed, and if they considered that it might cause detriment to neighbours, or objections, or be out of keeping with the environment, to refer it up to the committee for full consideration at a full meeting. Meetings were held, weekly, in public, although only councillors could speak. Any decision which might be controversial would therefore be sure to be properly aired.

As far as this application is concerned, it would seem that either the planning officers did not understand what was being proposed, or that they did understand it and for some inexplicable reason allowed it to be approved without public discussion. Either way, this calls the competence of those who signed off this application into question, and this is exacerbated by the fiercely protected secrecy under which planning decisions are actually made in Guernsey.

I am also hugely surprised that the president of the planning committee, who must surely have been apprised of this very significant and major planning application, appears not to have taken any direct interest in it as the deputy with most direct responsibility, or decided not to get involved.

The general community of Guernsey seems to have been very badly served, by either its planning officers, or its politicians, or both.

Harvey Marshall, D Litt, BSc (Est Man), FRICS

St Saviour’s