Council try to defend the indefensible (From Bucks Free Press)

Council try to defend the indefensible

12:17pm Friday 27th August 2010 in

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RE: The decision by Wycombe District Council officers to allow an unapproved change to a shop front in Marlow.

WHEN answering legitimate concerns regarding what has been built at 57a The High Street, Marlow, Wycombe District Council’s spokesman Caroline Spalton (Marlow Free Press August 13) makes no mention of the council’s design guidance pamphlet “Shop Fronts & Shop signs. A guide to their role in the conservation of historic character in town centres.” Published in 2003 by its own conservation office, The guidance covers a wide range of design subjects, from Shop Front Design to Window Stickers. By approving what has been built, the council disregards many of its own guidelines and not only in matters of design.

The document’s introduction states that “By consulting this note prior to submitting a planning or advertisement application you (the developer) avoid unnecessary delays and costs in obtaining consents.” Yet here in a conservation area a developer has avoided such cost and delay by changing the design without applying for permission for a significantly changed design.

This raises any number of questions. Why should the council ignore the guidance it gives to developers and approve a design that makes a mockery of its own document? If the document is to be ignored in this way, why did the council expend so much cost and staff time, to produce it in the first place?

This case also serves to expose a further shortcoming in the way the council exercises planning control, as there appears to be no formal mechanism for ensuring that completed buildings conform to approved plans.

Isn’t it a pity that the council should continue to defend the indefensible? When it should be saying sorry we will try to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

J.D.Burnham, Harwood Road, Marlow, Bucks