The Rt Hon. George Osborne MP said that the Government would introduce legislation shortly to speed up planning decisions, and enable the Government to use its access to low interest rates to help underwrite construction projects.
Mr Turner said, “I absolutely agree that planning needs to be speeded up, but that must not be at the expense of allowing local people to have a proper say in what developments go forward. Not only should decisions to allow development be quicker – so should refusals.
Stop it dragging on
“At the moment developers can submit totally inappropriate applications that drag on and on blighting people’s lives and affecting property prices, or even their ability to sell. When an application is turned down another application is sometimes submitted for a similar development – I would like to see an end to that as well.
“There should be a specified period of time before another application for the same type of development is allowed. That would stop speculators putting in applications to see if they can ‘get away with’ over-development of sites and cut down the number of such applications. It would also free up the planning system.”
Mr Turner said he would welcome comments from Islanders on the subject.
Image: Will Scullin under CC BY 2.0
