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- Government's Planning Bill: "Bad for Democracy and Environment in Wales"
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- Press releases 2002
- "Public Transport Innovation Needs More Cash Now!" - FOEC Response to Assembly Funding Plans
- A40 Upgrading May Be Single Carriageway
- Airport expansion plans 'grounded'
- Assembly control over GM weakened
- Assembly Opportunity to Spark a Green Industrial Revolution
- Blair to take back Assembly Planning Powers?
- Bmibaby Announcement - Silver Linings Come With Global Rain Clouds
- Don't get lost in the GM Maize! - FOE Cymru urges farmers to boycott GM Trials
- Energy Efficiency Campaigners Spotlight Meacher on Commitments to Fuel Poor
- English GM test contamination shows Assembly is right to keep GM crops out of Wales
- English recycle 50% more than Welsh
- Environmentalists Call For Assembly PFI Roads Investigation
- Environmentalists Welcome 20 Years of Nuclear Free Wales Declaration
- European Commission plans "could scupper GM Free Wales" warns Friends of the Earth Cymru
- FOE Cymru welcomes GM Free Wales in 2002
- Friends of the Earth Cymru consults on its draft Welsh Language Scheme
- Friends of the Earth Cymru launch new web site
- Glamorgan GM Scientist: Right on commercialisation Wrong on test sites
- Government's Planning Bill: "Bad for Democracy and Environment in Wales"
- Greens Call on Passengers to Press for a First Rate Rail Service
- Group calls urgent discussions on planning reforms
- Invest in Road Safety Not Faster Roads to Reduce Crashes
- Keep Wales GM free!
- Landfill linked to Down's Syndrome
- Large Majority Support More Onshore and Offshore Welsh Windfarms - Independent Phone Survey
- Leaked report shows Government scrambling to change GM law
- Lib Dems "selling out" on GM issues
- Major airport proposal challenged
- Ministers told: come clean on GM seed rules
- Morgan should stand up for a GM free Welsh environment
- New power station given cautious welcome
- Newport SDR - Flood by A thousand road contracts and six billion people
- No GM Crop Trials in Wales - Reward for Assembly Stance
- North Wales Windfarm Welcomed
- Offshore Windfarm Go-Ahead, Fingers Crossed for Many More Say Environmentalists
- Opposition to Porthcawl Offshore Windfarm Premature and Unfair
- Planting of the genetically modified (GM) maize variety Chardon LL
- Renewable energy target welcomed
- Renewables could produce 30 per cent of Welsh electricity 2010
- Rhodri Morgan Must Demand Fair Trade at Earth Summit (and sort out the Assembly when he gets back)
- Severn Barrage Outperformed By Tidal Lagoons, Greens Advise Assembly
- Stop Trying to Delay Windfarms - Environmentalists Rebuke Tactics of Conservation Groups
- Terrorism Threats Reason Enough to Abandon Any New Nuclear Power Programme
- Welsh Anti-GM Campaigners take to streets of Brussels
- Welsh Rail Users Hit Back!
Government's Planning Bill: "Bad for Democracy and Environment in Wales"
Friends of the Earth Cymru has described the Government's announcement on the future of the Planning system in England and Wales as "jumbled and confusing" [1]. The group has also expressed its frustration that the future of the planning system in Wales has been tied so closely to the Treasury-led Whitehall review.
Friends of the Earth Cymru had hoped that Assembly Planning Minister, Sue Essex, would use the opportunity of the Assembly's own planning review to create distinctive policies. These could have met the need to boost public confidence in the Planning System and give people in Wales real rights to participate in the system. Sue Essex's announcement on Planning was made last week with details of the Bill not published until today.
The group complains that the Bill is jumbled, confusing and gives little hope of gaining the public support the planning system so badly needs.
Friends of the Earth Cymru has welcomed the commitment to give the Wales Spatial Plan legal status and proposals to stop developers exploiting the system by making repeated similar applications.
However, the group has condemned plans to introduce "Business Planning Zones" with eased planning procedures "if the Assembly Government considers it appropriate". The campaigners have also attacked Sue Essex's refusal to consider giving individuals, community groups and businesses (so called 'third parties') a real right of appeal against certain types of development [2].
Dr Hugh Ellis, Friends of the Earth's Planning Adviser commented:
"Reforming the planning system was a golden opportunity to create a fair and efficient framework for all participants. But, these confusing Treasury-led proposals are bad for democracy and bad for the environment."
Julian Rosser, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Cymru added:
"Sue Essex had a real opportunity to bring some real justice and fairness to the planning system in Wales. It is a great pity that she has blown that opportunity and refused to even address the fact that individuals have no meaningful right of appeal with the system.
"The planning system lacks public confidence. This could have been tackled by giving people real rights in the system. There don't appear to be any meaningful proposals in the Bill which would achieve that."
"Wales should be demanding it's own legislation, not being tagged onto a rushed and ill-considered proposal for England that won't deliver sustainable development or local democracy."
Notes
[1] The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill was published today
[2] See the Friends of the Earth Cymru briefing paper "Planning Justice for Wales (PDF† format 138K)"
†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.



