(JRR Tolkien +) "Planning is for people not profit",...

....says National Trust Director-General Dame Fiona Ryenolds National Trust Press Release

The draft of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), published by the UK Government, ...finally sounds the death-knell to the principle established in the 1940s that the planning system should be used to protect what is most special in the landscape,...

The National Trust have criticised the Government’s focus throughout its consultation document on economic growth, which sends the message that schemes which deliver this alone will be enough to get planning permission. This will focus developers’ and local authorities’ attention on the narrow grounds of short-term financial gain, rather than delivering the wider public benefit that good planning can deliver. They say:

• the reversal of development controls in the public interest comes at too high a price. The NPPF’s concept of sustainable development puts too little weight on benefiting people and the environment
• the removal of much detailed guidance to local authorities leaves too much power in the hands of developers who will only need to show that their proposals will deliver growth for other important considerations – for example impact on communities, nature and landscape, and the environment – to be pushed aside.
• local people will have to rely on a development plan to protect what they treasure and shape where development should go. Yet only some local authorities have development plans in place and many local authorities and neighbourhood groups do not have the resources and specialist skills to create plans that genuinely integrate social, environmental and economic considerations. If there is no up to date development plan, planning applications will automatically get consent.

The National Trust have launched a campaign to show what people value about their local places and the importance of strong planning principles. A twitter feed will ask people to tweet their views with #NTlocal to build up a national picture.

For more information CLICK HERE

But what has this to do with Tolkien? Click and read this http://gu.com/p/xdffe The Shire - in Lord of the Rings is n's paean to the Forest of Arden landscape of his Edwardian childhood, which was being covered over with uncontrolled, unplanned sprawling, pre-Green Belt, suburbs of South Birmingham. See Birmingham Museum's Sarehole Mill

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This sprawl was no accident or Act of God. It was as a direct result of the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Depression. In the 1930s -as now- planning restrictions were opposed by speculators as a restraint on economic growth. Opposed to them, report after report advocated regional planning that would integrate growth in depressed regions with national development guidelines. See Town and Country Planning: 60 Years of Planning - challenges, then and now 

The National Trust say, "The Government’s planning reforms, could lead to unchecked and damaging development in the undesignated countryside on a scale not seen since the 1930s."