A cunning plan

In Basildon, Essex, the local council is about to attempt to evict a group of Irish travellers from a plot of land they have been living on for many years, on the grounds that the land is designated as “green belt”. The travellers own the land, which abuts another plot that they also own and on which they have legitimately built permanent homes. However, they have never been granted planning permission to build on the portion designated as green belt.

In the meantime, the coalition government is running into fierce opposition over its plans to alter the UK’s planning laws. The government argues that the existing regulations are stifling development and thus holding back the entire economy. Among other things, the changes would make it much easier to obtain permission to build on…the green belt!

Interesting, no? I don’t have a particular axe to grind on the Basildon case, but one thing which is perfectly clear to me, even before the government changes the planning laws, is that developers (as opposed to ordinary individuals) can already get away with rather a lot.

In my own area, residents (and the local council) have been trying to fight off a developer who wants to build a massive freight depot on green belt land. The land was previously a gravel pit. When the site was made good after the gravel ran out, the government made a commitment to leave it as part of the green belt in perpetuity. Perpetuity, it turns out, means “less than ten years” in this instance.

The developer portrays the scheme as a rail freight depot, which makes it look more environmentally acceptable. (There will be something like 700 spaces for container trucks – and a single-track rail spur. You be the judge.) The planning application has been back and forth, at enormous taxpayer expense, between the local council, various courts of law and the government in Whitehall, which will have the final say. A verdict from the relevant Cabinet Minister is expected imminently; given the pressure on the government to find ways to spur growth, it would be a surprise if it were to be turned down.

So here we have a huge, unsightly development on a vast, council-owned tract of the green belt that the highly persistent developers stand every chance of pushing through. Meantime, over in Basildon, the travellers are about to be pushed off a tiny sliver of green belt land that they legitimately own and which is immediately adjacent to another residential area developed and occupied by travellers. It really does seem that what you can get away with has a great deal to do with who you are.