WEAVER Vale MP Mike Amesbury warned Parliament this week that the Government’s plans to ‘streamline’ the planning process would silence the community voice.

Mike spoke during a debate in the House of Commons on the Government’s White Paper which proposes a reform of the UK planning system.

The controversial proposal has attracted cross-party objection including from former Prime Minister Theresa May and several other senior Tory MPs.

It looks to introduce a zonal planning system that would see homes in designated growth areas granted automatic planning permission.

The Weaver Vale MP spoke at length during the debate, saying that it would remove any say communities currently have in developments being built in our towns and villages.

He said: “As has been echoed across the Chamber, some of the proposals, at face value, such as design standards, codes and quality, and neighbourhood plans being on a statutory footing, were outlined in Labour’s planning commission in September 2019, so there are some positive steps.

“Yet Members across the Chamber, and certainly many of our constituents and people in the housing sector, do not have to scratch far beneath the surface to discover that the very DNA of these proposals is a shift of control, power and influence from our local communities to developers. It is a developer’s charter.

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“In reality, these announcements will do very little to build back better, beautiful and greener. In many cases, they do exactly the opposite, creating a framework of chaos — permitted development with bells on in terms of the statutory instruments, these monstrosities appearing in our communities, two-storey extensions on every house in every street, and the green light for even more houses in multiple occupation ghettos throughout the land. This is a real threat to our green belt.

“Coming on the back of a decade of austerity and the current economic crisis because of the health crisis, these reforms further undermine our local councils. They strip away power and finance from local planning authorities, but, crucially — very importantly — they take away the ability of local communities to have their voice heard.

“The zonal approach is particularly concerning because it risks creating a free-for-all where well-resourced developers can simply outplay, out-shout and out-shape our local residents and communities.”