Dare I say it, planning, life and everything in general is just a lot more complicated now

I don’t get much free time, but when I do, and because I’m nearly 40 and therefore ‘quite sad’ I spend most of it looking at stuff related to planning…

A while ago, I came across a file in my dear old dad’s office relating to a planning application he undertook himself in the early 90s… He filled out a form, had some plans drawn up, and sent it to the Local Authority.

A few weeks later he received a permission. No apparent ecological input, no structural survey, no access or transport input, no FRA, no demonstration of need, no assessment of heritage impact, no assessment of policy… Nothing.

That application concerned the conversion of a 19th century barn to a dwelling… in Flood Zone 3, with no vehicular access or turning area, situated adjacent to a nature reserve which itself had grown up around a disused railway line, in a Conservation Area and all snuggled amidst a charming corner of one of our nicer National Parks…

The conclusion that I have drawn from this is that either my Father, who captained oil tankers on the capacious high-seas for a living, was also a quite brilliant and naturally gifted Planning Consultant, or… Dare I say it, planning, life and everything in general is just a lot more complicated now…