The Planners: episode two

By , Friday, 8 February 2013, 7 Comments

Episode Two of the BBC series The Planners hit our screens last night and once again has got people talking. About planning. Twitter was alive with comment before, during and after the programme was on air. I’ve taken a trawl through the twittersphere and picked out a few of the best (and worst) tweets which you can see below. Let us know what you thought of the programme at the bottom of the page.

  • Paul Barkley

    The Lemon Field. I thought it was going to look a bit Mediterranean, like a lemon grove; but it’s just a scrubby piece of wasteland. If I had been advising the applicants I would have said go for an outline; at least one of the members seemed to recognise its suitability for housing but didn’t like the design. My advice to planning committees is “if you’re going to refuse something do it on subjective grounds like design. You may lose at appeal but you’re unlikley to have a costs award against you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

    Nice to see enforcement being described as “the most exciting job in planning”. I agree it’s more exciting than the five year housing land supply figures. Perhaps in a subsequent episode we’ll see an enforcement officer being threated with a pitchfork or a shotgun rather than being hugged and nominated for an OBE.

    As for the chicken sheds, too close to houses in my opinion with the location being suggested because it was convenient for the farmer rather than because it was a suitable location. A tricky judgement though balancing environment against economy.

    Are planners going to be made media stars? I don’t think so; I suspect a high proportion of viewers are planners. Anyway, it would be a jolly bad thing since media stars are (and I generalise unashamedly) empty headed bimbos and thick footballers (except Posh and Becks of course). Is that really the impression you want to give of your profession? I say “your profession” because I’m a lawyer and we’ve always had a public image problem.

    • Tim

      To be honest, I think the 1960′s and 1970,s kind of killed off our image as a profession, its now pretty much a lost cause.

  • cathy stafford

    Do agree with Prof Scott’s comment re lack of ref to local plan documentation. Personally I would take it further; without setting the planning system properly in context, as a viewer who has already come across a lot of information on the planning system, it would be easy for me to see this as a bit of exploitative telly, playing to stereotypes with a little bit of confrontation thrown in. I just wanted to be told more as a viewer as to the basis upon which recommendations were being made / delegated decisions taken. What were the grounds upon which the officer recommended refusal of permission on the land upon which the walnut tree stood?

    • Blindmissellie

      Regarding the Lemon Field. The Walnut tree in question has a protection order against it and stands next to the entrance to the site (single, narrow lane access). The build traffic would potentially have caused substantial damage to the tree.

      What was also not clear in the programme was that the designs were for a small number of luxury retirement cottages. Minchinhamption has had a large number of applications passed in the last few years for developments of this nature. The Lemon Field development would not have provided the additional affordable housing or family homes identified in the Local Plan.

      Also, the traffic implications of additional cars from the development being added to a single lane already struggling to support car and foot traffic for church goers and the Sports Association without incident lent weight to permission being denied.

      The problem I have with programmes of this nature is that it gives little snapshots angled to make the most entertaining story and certain elements get cut in favour of interesting characters and a compelling narrative.

  • JOHN LLOYD

    Lack of reference to the Local Plan is probably because these LPA’s have not yet updated these

  • Actionsofafewarefeltbyall

    I have just completed a book ‘Actions of a few (councillors) are felt by all’ which highlights just what planners are getting away with, along with the corruption involving most Councillors who go along with extremely questionable deals in secrete meeting where the public are excluded. Mainly to make colossal amounts with each (section 106 agreements) secured with the developers. Our local significantly small play area, was snatched from us even with a background policy that no residential housing would ever be considered on this recreational play area? The developers along with the housing trust, Guinness Housing Trust were in agreement, that a vast amount of mature trees locally were cut down without any regard with the local sensitive environment issues. Along with a great deal of local garages demolished speedily calling it (due to unforeseen circumstances) with at least 15 local residents needing these garages, now having to park in the road why?

  • http://www.endlesspools.co.uk/ Rick

    Interesting new show I’ve just recently come across…Look forward to checking it out some more!

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