Tory councils rebelling over planning laws

There is an interesting story in the Sunday Times which warns that councils across the country have warned the government it could face chaos if it goes ahead with its controversial planning reforms.

More worryingly for both David Cameron and Greg Clark,is the fact that it is in the Tory heartlands where questions are being asked.

The councils says the paper

are particularly angry at the “presumption in favour of sustainable development” which is enshrined in the NPPF and yet the document gives no strict definition of the words. Councils fear endless legal challenges over what the phrase actually means.

Henman ravishes Oxfordshire countryside

Former tennis player Tim Henman has been granted planning permission to demolish a cottage in the grounds of his 17th century grade II-listed mansion in South Oxfordshire and replace it with a gym.

South Oxfordshire District Council gave Henman the green light despite a refusal from the Aston Tirrold Parish Council who had concerns over its impact on the "historic street scene within the Conservation area."

Henman sought full planning for the demolition of the cottage and the erection of a replacement building to be used as an annexe to his Georgian home near Didcot, Oxon.

A separate conservation area consent application was also submitted for the demolition of the existing cottage.

Permission was granted on August 19 following a planning committee meeting.

Head of planning at South Oxfordshire District Council Adrian Duffield told the Daily Telegraph: ''The development lies within the well-defined confines of the built-up part of Aston Tirrold and there is no objection to the development.

''The scale and design of the development is sympathetic to the character and appearance of the conservation area and the setting of surrounding listed buildings.

''The scheme is otherwise generally in accordance with development plan policies.''

Source 24Dash.com

This morning's top political stories

Nick Clegg's speech this afternoon to the Lib Dem conference is previewed in many of the papers.

According to the Guardian he will

unveil a compassionate response to the riots in his keynote speech by proposing that as many as 100,000 children at risk of going off the rails be offered a chance to attend two-week summer school prior to starting secondary studies. He will say the voluntary summer school can prevent children "falling through the cracks".

The Telegraph says that

In contrast to the tough rhetoric used by David Cameron against the rioters, Mr Clegg will say that “the odds are stacked against too many of our children”.

"It was about what they could get, here and now, not what lies in front of them, tomorrow and in the years ahead. [It was] as if their own future had little value," he will say.says the Independent

The Times says that The Lib Dems are keen to stress their different response to the riots from the more hardline approach to law and order of the Tories. Lord McNally, the party’s Justice Minister, said yesterday that he was “having to fend off” demands from David Cameron’s policy unit for stricter sentences to be included in the current sentencing Bill. “We are not fighting only one front,” he told Lib Dem representatives.

Meanwhile BBC News says that the Deputy Prime Minister will defend the government's economic strategy and his party's role in the coalition and is due to say his party will not change course on spending cuts but can do more to encourage growth.

He will argue,says the report,that the economic crisis shows the party made the "right call" in entering power with the Conservatives.

Elsewhere the Independent reports that an investigation has been launched into whether a Labour sympathiser within the Department for Education leaked emails from Michael Gove's senior advisers to the media.

David Cameron has personally intervened for the first time in the growing row over planning reform to assure campaigners that the environmental benefits of developments will be assessed before new projects are given permission reports the Telegraph.

It says that in a letter sent last night by Mr Cameron to the National Trust,he insisted that he is committed to the “magnificent countryside” and said the “beautiful British landscape is a national treasure”.Poorly designed and poorly located development is in no one’s interest,” Mr Cameron added.

The Mail has used its leader column this morning to launch an attack on the Lib Dems

Like flat-Earthers clinging to long- disproved theories, the Lib Dems blather on at their conference, in unshakeable denial of realities staring them in the face.

Staying with the Lib Dems the Times reports that Nick Clegg is preparing to ask for a bigger role for his party at the Home Office as Liberal Democrats brace themselves for the first major reshuffle.

The paper claims that the party are prepared to trade the senior role occupied in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by their Minister Of State Jeremy Browne for a beefed-up job under Theresa May.