APPENDIX 3
Letter of 7 May 1999 from M Wallis to
Hilary Armstrong MP, Minister at DETR
PLANNING INSPECTORATE'S FAILURE TO SERIOUSLY
ADDRESS COMPLAINTS AGAINST INSPECTOR BEHAVIOUR; DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
ACT
We submitted a complaint on 22 March that the
Planning Inspector had forced on us an inquiry venue without proper
consideration of the access for disabled persons. The Inspectorate's
answer of 20 April virtually ignores the issue, implying that
an Inspector can ignore the rights of disabled people and public
transport users, and the Act itself if he wishes.
We have written again as enclosed, including
further complaints on this Inspector's behaviour, but we have
little expectation that the Inspectorate will respond. We copy
the correspondence to yourself in order to stress that your promises
of enhancing public participation in planning will need to address
re-structuring or re-training of the Planning Inspectorate up
to the top levels.
One point that shows how they are making things
worse for public participation is their behaviour over charging
for photocopies. First they are letting the Council charge £2
per time plus 20p per sheet (four times the commercial rate).
Second, they require participants whether voluntary groups or
individual members of the public to carry out the Inquiry's responsibility
of making five copies of documents. Can you not act speedily to
stop the Planning Inspectorate conniving with such bad Councils
to penalise the public for participating in planning?
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