Long day with South Cambs Planning Committee today, starting with site visits in the morning to see "on the ground" some of the applications on which we took decisions in the afternoon. Today we went to Bassingbourn, Willingham, Castle Camps and Great Chishill, and to get between those last two locations, driving through Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire! The meeting itself started at two and finished well after six thirty. I had time to check on the planning enforcement team's progress regarding Station Road, Whittlesford and the meeting with the County Highways today.
In the year that I have been on planning committee we have taken decisions on wind farms and travellers sites, huge grain storage facilities and sixth form colleges, redundant pubs and estates of many hundreds of houses. But each application matters a great deal to those involved, and those living nearby, however small the proposed extension might be.
Today, as one of nineteen applications on the agenda, including a planning application for Heathfield, we took a planning decision on a rabbit sanctuary at Chishill, which takes unwanted pets, educates people about their care, and finds them new homes. But local villagers complain about the flow of visitors past their gardens to the sanctuary, the burning of waste and vermin problems.
We agreed temporary permission and urged the rabbiteers to build a better relationship with the local village so that at some point they might secure permanent planning permission. One thing comes up again and again, and that is the power of a parish council representative attending and speaking at the planning committee.
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