"Peter Crosland" wrote in
:

Bloody local councils!

Why blame the Council? They administer a complex set of rules set by
central government. If people choose to ignore the rules and get
caught then they have nobody but themselves to blame! The reason for
the planning system is to provide a framework within development can
proceed in a manner that, by and large, prevents the mess that results
when everybody does as they please without regard for anyone else. Yes
it is imperfect and some Councils are stricter than others, but there
are a lot of checks and balances within the system. I don't doubt you
would be among the first to complain if people could just put up
buildings wherever they pleased. You should be lobbying your MP for
change if you want it.

In the real world, he'll be just as corrupt as the council.

As for your point about building, no, I wouldn't support the abolition of
all controls over putting up buildings. But what I said 'bloody local
councils' to was the report about how a local council made someone restore
his garden to farmland. I would certainly support the abolition of all
restrictions on turning pieces of farmland into gardens, which is what this
bloke did. There are no such restrictions in Ireland and it hasn't led the
sky to cave in Turning a field into a garden is not by any stretch of
the imagination an anti-social act, and does not require to be stomped on
or addressed by the authorities in the way that genuinely anti-social acts
do.

Chris