10. Present your Case

All - Inform Others - Organise - Contact Councillors - Contact MP - Inform Groups
Write Letter - Gather Petition - Organise Protest - Contact Media - Present Case

The only other way for local people to have their voices heard [see Write a Letter] in the official, rule-bound ritual that passes as 'public participation' [but which simply engenders a kind of public gagging], is a presentation to the Planning Committee. This is likely to be a few minutes - often just three - during which any, and all, objections, comments, doubts, and any evidence to back up any of these, gets aired. Your local Councillor[s] will be able to speak, and may be allowed more time.

Of course, it's not enough. How could it be? But that's apparently not a particular concern of local authorities ... otherwise it would not be so! Under certain circumstances - entirely up to the [often erratic] discretion of the officers and committee - Councillors may decide to visit a site, where local residents may be able to make a slightly more lengthy argument. But in either case, and applying exactly the same local authority rules as to a letter, it is best to play by their rules, negotiate the best possible argument, and present it succinctly. They're not going to listen to anything else ... they're jurors after all. They're above the vicissitudes of local opinion!

© 2006 / The Planning Resource Founding Trust