Letter: Unpopularity Is Not a Reason to Refuse Planning Permission

Published on: 27 Aug, 2019
Updated on: 27 Aug, 2019

Marsha Moseley, chairing the GBC Planning Committee.

From Fiona White

deputy leader at GBC and Lib Dem borough councillor for Westborough

In response to: There Is No Democracy in Guildford’s Planning Process

Although I was not at the Planning Committee meeting [Wednesday, August 14], I have watched the webcast twice because of the number of letters and postings about this decision.

The difficulty is that planning is heavily regulated. Any decision has to be backed by planning policies either national or local. The proposal to approve the application was backed by policies set out in the report to the committee.

The people who opposed the approval were asked a number of times to put forward strong planning policies to support that refusal so that the reasons could be debated. They didn’t.

The fact that an application is unpopular locally is not a planning policy reason to refuse. There was discussion about the highways implications but Surrey Highways, who are statutory consultees, had no objections to the proposal.

If the application is refused, the applicant has a right to appeal. If the refusal is not supported by planning policies that appeal is likely to be upheld. While it doesn’t happen very often, there are times when an inspector will decide that a council has been unreasonable and will order the council to pay the applicant’s costs as well as its own.

It is important to remember is that government policy is a presumption in favour of development. Any refusal will be tested and only good planning policy reasons for refusal will work.

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