How planning laws could be improved

Dear Sir,

With regard to the recent debate in The Chronicle about how our planning laws could be improved, there could well be a middle way.

Labour seem to believe in a more locally controlled system with most homes built by social enterprises and tailored to what the community wants.

The Conservatives prefer the present system of a developer, market driven system with limited right of appeal by local communities.

For Labour's scheme to work, communities would need to be more pro-actively interested and involved than they are at present.

A strong right of appeal by third parties such as community action groups and specified individuals could help to counter the strong grip that developers have over the planning system at present.

This is something that the Liberal Democrats have advocated for many years though there would need to be strict time limits in the process to prevent long delays.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Peter Hirst

Middlewich