Pickles: no adopted local plan in place in constituency

There has been a lot of fuss in this weekend’s papers about how the senior ministers behind the coalition’s controversial planning reforms have previously attempted to block developments in their own areas. Readers that worked in planning at the time of the former Tory government may be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu. In the late 1980s, former environment secretary Nicholas Ridley, credited with popularising the term “nimby” – and who wanted to build new towns in southern England to tackle housing shortages – objected to a housing development near the rectory he owned in the Cotswolds. Read more »