Residents Shock Over Proposed Changes to Planning Process

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Ealing council may give more powers to officers

Residents in Ealing are urging their local Councillors to reject proposals which could see an end to the current way planning decisions are made.

Changes being recommended would increase the power officers have to make delegated decisions and at the same time reduce the number of planning committee meetings from 17 to 12 per year.

The new head of planning, David Scourfield, wants to change the current constitution to enable more decisions to be made faster and to encourage a more 'business-like' approach to the handling of major applications.

The report before full council this evening says ''Ealing must “raise its game” to meet expectations and challenges.''

However, local residents are fearful the changes will mean more planning applications will be rubber stamped, with no local input.

Victor Mishiku who has long been involved with Ealing's planning department is appalled by the suggested changes and written to his local councillor:

He says: '' It has just come to light that the new Head of Planning Mr David Scourfield's proposals to change the planning system also at first included abolishing the long-established and popular Saturday morning Committee Site Visits that Ealing Council has carried out for over 30 years or more and instead Mr Scourfield apparently suggested that 'unadvertised' visits would be carried out on a Wednesday afternoon (when everyone is out at work!) and since they would not be advertised, no one would know about them anyway (except the developers of course!)''

Many other residents have written to their local representatives urging they reject the proposals.

Mary Di Lullo from Acton has written, ''We do not want to see Planning Officers taking all the decisions behind closed doors and which are sometimes questionable with little consideration shown to the longstanding residents of the area some of whom have been living here for decades. We residents expect the Councillors we vote into office to help look after us in the public interest.

''It is well known that Planning Officers in Ealing have a very high turnover and many of them do not even live in the Borough; their knowledge of the localities and the people within them is far less than our experienced and longstanding Councillors who themselves do live in the Borough and sometimes even in the same road.
Please do not vote away your right to protect the residents of this Borough in planning matters!''

The issue will be discussed before full council this evening.

12th April 2016