Take action for a democratic planning system

CPRE Sussex believes that people in Sussex should have a say in planning decisions affecting their communities and that the planning system should work in the public interest.

You can help to make this happen by writing to your MP – and we’ve made it easy for you to do this – see below

The planning system is changing following new government legislation in response to the coronavirus pandemic. While some changes may be needed to build infrastructure to protect people, there are worrying signs of an unnecessary and undemocratic bypassing of public access to planning decisions, with negative long-term consequences. This cannot continue unchecked.

Developers should not be allowed to use the current crisis as an opportunity to rush through poor planning decisions. Instead, the government must prioritise long-term benefits to communities as it begins to think about the recovery plan from this crisis.

We obviously need to get the economy going again, but people, nature and communities should not pay the price for poor planning decisions sneaking through during the coronavirus crisis. We need to build back better, not gamble away the future for a quick cash injection.

The government must do more to recognise the importance of communities in making planning decisions. The views of local people must be heard by local planning committees.

For communities to recover from coronavirus, and to ensure that the steps we take to build back better creates the greener resilient economy we all need, the planning system needs to be strengthened, with community voices at its forefront.

Please urge your MP to back a democratic planning system. CPRE has prepared an email for you to send to your MP. It will take you about two minutes to fill in the details and press ‘send’ to let your MP know that you care about this.

Find the email for you to send to your MP here.

Here are some letters CPRE Sussex has written to local authorities to protect your interests:

Letter to Chichester DC

Letters to Mid-Sussex DC and responses:

Letter to Mid Sussex DC 29.4.202020.05.12         JH letter to Michael Brown re Planning Applications

Letter to Mid Sussex DC 19.5.20        JH follow up letter to Michael Brown re Planning Applications

Letter to Rother DC