Author: Cyril Richert

Wandsworth Guardian – 17 April 2014

Many thanks to Sophia Sleigh for her report to the Putney Society, Wandsworth Society, Clapham Junction Action Group and Friends of Putney Common’s open letter to the Prime Minister.

The article starts with : “Wandsworth Council has accused community groups of being ‘NIMBYs’ after they wrote to David Cameron to complain about the borough’s planning procedures.“

Online article >>> HERE.

Last week, Cllr Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council, confirmed that according to him, planning Policies are just guidelines that can be ignored if needed (and he must know what he is talking about as he was Chair of Wandsworth planning application committee for a decade).

This is apparently the explanation adopted by the Council to explain that there is no breaches of policies as those are only guidelines (therefore only nice to follow when possible…). According to the article, a spokesman for the council said:

“All our decisions are based on planning legislation and we scrupulously follow our own local guidelines where these do not conflict with national planning rules.“

In real world, local policies are statutory Development Plan for the borough and must comply with a long list of requirements and must be submitted to the Secretary of State for Examination and reviewed by an independent Planning Inspector and subject to the changes identified in the Inspector’s Examination report. Local Policies say clearly (DMPD p13): “Planning permission will be granted for developments which comply with the following criteria…“

Filed under: In the press