Standing up for common sense in New Barnet
Friday, 1 April 2011
Democracy Costs Barnet Ratepayers £137,343
Reading today's batch of delegated powers reports there is one that really worries me. It relates to a planning application to extend the Edgwarebury Cemetery that was dealt with back in 2009. According to the report at the time officers recommended that the application be passed but councillors voted for the application to be refused. The applicant took Barnet to appeal and won. They have now lodged a claim for costs of £137,343. Barnet are recommending paying out £82,500 immediately to minimise interest charges while they haggle about the balance. Now this is the hard part for me. Part of me thinks that those councillors who refused the application have cost us a packet by ignoring officers advice. However part of me also thinks that councillors were simply reflecting local residents' concern about an infringement of the green belt. It is a real dilemma and calls into question what role local people should have in the planning process. This is something very close to my heart. What really worries me is that this will now make councillors even more reluctant to disagree with officers and sometimes that is a really important stance they should take. I also worry that with reforms of the planning system coming soon it will make it even harder for communities to get their views heard when controversial schemes are considered. I think this is a topic that really needs further debate. Comments please.
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Officers advise, councillors decide. That’s the way it has to be. If there is a cost involved, well that is the price we pay for democracy. OK not a convincing argument in the People’s Republic of Barnet, but in theory it holds true.
ReplyDeleteOne of the many admirable qualities of your blog, Mr R, is that you remind us that there are actually many aspects to such issues, and taking a knee jerk political line on such proposals is not necessarily reflective of the truth. I think the only comment I can make is that democracy is an expensive process, but one we must invest in, unless we want to live in a One Barnet dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Councillors should stand up and be counted on matters of principle such as keeping the Green Belt green as they are important and once they are gone they are lost forever. I don't mind my 50p share of the bill. Remove one surplus overpaid administrator and we are even.
ReplyDelete93% of planning decisions in Barnet are made by officers under delegated powers (because they are for relatively small, uncontroversial things like extensions). The national average is 96%, so in fact Barnet councillors pull their weight/ interfere with significantly more decisions than in other areas.
ReplyDeleteI think this is probably a good thing, and in fact I understand that because Barnet councillors actually spend a lot of time on planning issues, this was a big concern for them when considering privatising the department.