Written evidence submitted by Mr Roger Wyer [PDR 016]

It is with great dismay that I learnt of the new Use Class E. It is extremely important for government to understand the full implications of their actions and not just the well-intended top line vision. The Planning Portal would have been a dismal failure if the Civil Service had not invited 20+ Planning Administrators to work with them in London. Within three meetings most issues not understood by the Civil Servants had been identified and resolved producing the excellent system now in place.

The relevance of this, is that every step of the way was identified by the people at the “coal face” who could see the issues clearly. I will bring this to life with a personal example. I live over a café which has a planning condition prohibiting customer use of the back garden along with other restrictions so that we have a near peaceful life. The beauty salon next door has similar restrictions. The café next door opened under the last GDPR and we were not able to get any conditions imposed. The local authority tell me that under Use Class E they have no power whatsoever of review so we have to put up with screaming children and loud adults, imposing noisy aircon and any opening hours they choose. This surely is not a vote winner once it becomes widely known. It exemplifies the lack of grass roots consultation.

In my personal opinion I have not seen time wasting planning officers. The process takes a while because they try to balance progress with common sense. Short cutting the system by excluding officers in the process will lead to poor quality of life for many to save money and what happens? Just like the NHS its hard to put things back to right. Planning laws came in to stop what this GDPR is promoting.

April 2021