Turning down the turbines

On Wednesday this week, the Planning Panel of Copeland Borough Council rejected an application to site six wind turbines, with a height of 115 metres and a swept area of over 5000 square metres, on a high ridge to the west of Frizington.

Officers had recommended acceptance, and it is very unusual for the panel to vote against officers advice.

What is the relevance of this little story?

The role of elected members in planning decisions is minimal at the best of times.  Between national policy, the planning inspectorate, delegated authority to offers and the constant threat of the cost of appeals, members aren’t left much leeway, but in exceptional circumstances all of this has to be put aside to do what is right.

Officers are rightly the professionals, and their assessment of any particular application must be given thorough consideration, but ultimately for large and contentious applications such as big wind turbines their assessment is as subjective as the next, and Councillors take the decisions based on a range of advice.

The report which came to the planning panel for these six turbines summarised planning policy, but in doing so made absolutely no mention of any elements of the recent National Planning Policy Framework which would warrant a refusal of the application.  The role of officers is to advise, but the willingness of elected members to take their advice on matters of planning policy at face value means that officers use planning policy to justify their assessment, not to provide a balanced policy position.

Members need to be less afraid of taking officers on when it comes to planning policy – I always take a copy of the NPPF and our own policies to meetings, having read them in relation to any contentious application.   Members set policy, yet seem to give up remembering much about it at that point, letting the officers tell them the policy position for any given application.  This needs to change if planning is to be anything approaching democratic.

One day I’ll write about planning in principle - how it can become more democratic, less intrusive, and serve a more libertarian end.

In the meantime, Councillors need to make greater use of planning policies, national and local, to protect natural beauty and general amenity in the face of the relentless march of the turbines.

Remember: officers advise, members decide