Government wins planning bill vote
The bill would hand planning decisions to an unelected quango
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Wednesday, 25, Jun 2008 08:27
The government has won a planning bill vote by a margin of 82.
The Commons voted on the bill today, with 280 MPs voting with the government and 198 voting against.
Some Labour rebels were won over by a drip-feed of government concessions, with Clive Betts saying he would support the government after assurances of a two year review.
But campaign groups are thoroughly unconvinced.
"The current proposals mean undermining democracy in favour of an increasingly centralised and authoritarian government," the Green party's principle speaker Caroline Lucas told politics.co.uk.
"Consulting with local people on disruptive, polluting projects like airports or power stations is essential, and any attempt to 'streamline' these processes to save money, or to hand them over to appointed yes-men, is a scandalous affront to the rights of ordinary people in the UK," she continued.
The Countryside Alliance agrees with her, with the group seizing on the role of the newly created quango – the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).
"The bill in its current form fails in three key areas," a spokesman told politics.co.uk.
"We believe that the proposed Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) lacks the necessary democratic accountability.
"In addition the removal of the existing rights of representation and appeal threaten to undermine confidence in the IPC and is an unjustified removal of existing rights," he continued.
"Finally the absence of an obligation for the IPC to take account of the principle of sustainable development is inconsistent with overall government policy."
In an article for politics.co.uk Hugh Ellis, Friends of the Earth's planning campaigner, voices similar concerns.
"The planning bill has reached a critical stage in its progress into law and so far the government has not been willing to compromise on its contents," he writes.
"But in trying to speed up our creaking planning system, the government appears to have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
"The planning bill is undemocratic, marginalises community voices and does nothing to tackle climate change."
The Tories and Lib Dems are opposing the bill. Only 34 Labour rebels would have been required to defeat the government, had they all stood firm.
A defeat would have been treated as a further erosion of Gordon Brown's authority and a disastrous chapter in his already problematic administration.