John Baron voices anger at ‘outside’ overruling of local planning decisions in Noak Bridge and Billericay

Conservative proposals would keep planning decisions local

John Baron, the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Basildon & Billericay, has visited a site on Eastfield Road, Noak Bridge, where a planning decision made by Basildon District Council not to develop was overturned by the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol due to the Government’s house-building targets.

This is similar to the situation with a site behind Barclays Bank in Billericay High Street which John and other Councillors have also visited – the Council said that the site had access too narrow for emergency vehicles and therefore decided it could not be developed, but were overruled by the Planning Inspectorate.

John said:

“These are further examples of local planning decisions being overturned by outsiders. Local people should have the final say on planning issues, as it is they who have to live with the consequences.

“A Conservative government would scrap Labour’s house-building targets and their unelected Regional Assemblies in order to ensure all planning decisions, including in-fill and greenbelt development, are taken by local Councils. Local people should decide, not bureaucrats elsewhere.”