This is one of the regular deliveries I get as a councillor from the Civic Centre. An assortment of committee papers, post and sundry plans, invitations and leaflets. Alas, contrary to popular belief, these brown envelopes rarely never contain any wads of cash. For some reason, dodgy businessmen don’t seem so keen to get questions asked in Council Chambers as they are in the House of Commons.
We get these twice a week, and occasionally a few bits on Saturday if we’re lucky. This was Tuesday’s delivery and, as you can see, comes in at an impressive two and a half inches (you won’t see those words together very often). To be fair, this is exceptional at nearly 5 pounds (that’s 2.2 kilos for French readers). This is largely because of the inclusion of the Bromley Town Centre Area Action Plan. This plan was already in its early stages of development when we lost a couple of department stores from Bromley Town Centre, and we were already concerned how Bromley should respond to competition from Croydon and Bluewater.
The report is pretty comprehensive – after all, if a job’s worth doing, etc, etc.
Now I bet you’re thinking that the report on the left is the most relevant one – don’t be silly. The main report is the thin one. The other, three times the thickness, is the sustainability appraisal. I kid you not. Sustainability, as in being kind to the environment and stuff - like, not cutting down too many trees.
This is not to have a pop at our planning department, though - as the report is quick to explain in its preamble, “under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, preparation of Development Plan Documents (DPD) must be informed by a Sustainability Appraisal (SA). This ensures that any significant environmental, social and economic effects have been considered during the preparation of planning policy documents consistent with European Directive 2001/42/EC relating to the Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA).”
So I and my colleagues on the Executive and Development Control committees will have to digest these two documents, including the SA, by Tuesday (or I suppose the wrath of Brussels will be upon us, or something).
However if the people of our fine town think they’re getting away with this, then they can think again, because on Tuesday we are merely approving the documents for public consultation. We are also drawing up masterplans for Orpington and Beckenham. We like to spread the joy.
