Have you ever sat in your back garden admiring the drainpipes?
The way the foul sewer curves; the little weeds that have grown in the drains; the water butt that ‘does your bit’ for the environment, not to mention your new heat pump humming away in the corner.
Beautiful. Isn’t it?
So when Mr Gove starts to talk about beautiful homes, I wonder why he has given no thought to his rear end.
Even if I go round the front of my home – a flat in a Victorian building with bay windows – it doesn’t do a lot for me. I don’t get, how shall I put this, passionately excited. Nice yes, but beautiful…
The problem is that I actually live inside my home. That’s where I find beauty – in my living room, kitchen and bathroom.
I’m lucky that I also have that greatest of luxuries – space. Not only can I swing a cat, I can swing the tom, the queen and the rest of the litter.
The average size of UK homes has been shrinking over the years so that now the average house is half the size of that in Japan. My flat has inner beauty.
Now Michael is doing something that Mrs Thatcher would never do – the screeching U-turn over a Berkeley scheme which was turned down because it was of a ‘generic suburban nature’. Excuse me.
But it’s not Michael or his sidekick, Rachel, who is turning these things down. They’re both too busy watching the farce that is Boris’ latest party allegation and Suella’s speeding. It’s the civil servants who are interpreting government policy.
So there we have it: a civil servant in the DLUCG overturning the decision of another civil servant in the Planning Inspectorate, who in turn is overturning the advice of planning officers (who are also civil servants).
Not to mention that this anonymous person has also overturned the democratic wishes of the council and its councillors.
And we wonder why the planning system is a mess.
I’m heading to the rear of my flat with a bottle of something strong in tow.
Have a good weekend. Baaaaaah.
Tom
by the Planning PR guru 