We knew that the present lot in Westminster do not care much about local government and local wishes - they virtually run the broad sweep of local government policy by ring-fencing some of their grants to local authorities and by setting all sorts of requirements.
They tried to make the regional development bodies into massive (over)planning bodies with enormous power. This seems to have been rejected now as secretly they are introducing legislation which will downgrade heritage in planning matter when it stands in the way of "wider social, economic and environmental benefits".
So the historic building could be demolished, the green-belt invaded, if someone in London so decrees.
But worse, they are also to set up a new quango to speed up planning decisions. The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) will be able to override any local protests.
Much of this is, of course, to enable us to meet the target of having thousands and thousands of wind generators installed around our villages and towns, or new power stations, with very little local power to oppose. If you can't carry the local community, ignore them.
The IPC is, of course, yet another quango - unaccountable, unelected and uncaring (- at least as far as local people are concerned.
What happened to local democracy?
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