Campaigners have warned that local planning decisions on housing projects in protected areas of the countryside are being overturned by government inspectors using new development laws. Despite promises by ministers to hand more control to communities, campaigners say that decisions by local councils to turn down developments are being routinely overridden by the centralised Planning Inspectorate. The Sunday Telegraph has discovered that several developments on legally protected landscapes, including greenbelt land, have all been approved within recent months by the inspectorate under the National Planning Policy Framework, the Coalition’s planning reforms. The rulings have reversed decisions by local authorities to reject the housing to safeguard the land. The Sunday Times reports that Campaign to Protect Rural England has accused Eric Pickles of undermining his “localism agenda” by approving housing developments that rural communities say will damage the countryside. The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times – Sunday 17th March 2013.

“So much for localsism” says Bill Winlow.