In November 2020 Green Ixworth submitted a response to the Government‘s White Paper (consultative Document) on the future of planning. The Ixworth and Ixworth Thorpe Parish Council adopted the response with a few additions, which we also adopted plus our own further comments related to our environmental role.

The Government proposals were an extreme view of how the planning system would change, designing it to suite IT systems rather than designing IT systems to suite the essence of planning which is the full and regular involvement of local communities. If you think that the present arrangements with the Neighbourhood Plan require more answers and information,  then you will find the Government proposals much worse with no detailed consultation at all just a principle of short consultation on whether the area can be developed.

The response makes more sense if you read the White Paper first but unless you are very keen on Planning you might wonder what world the originators of the plan were living on. www.gov.uk/mhclg White Paper: Planning for the Future.

The proposal in the Queens Speech this week may be a little different but we shall only know when the Bill is published. So at this stage we need to assume they are the same or similar.

Do use our comment facility to let us know what you think about the White Paper or our comments or any new proposals the Government makes.

Read our full response here