For Irish mothers, the perfect set is a priest, a doctor and a lawyer. You can see why. The doctor will save your life, the lawyer will keep you out of jail and the priest will get you into heaven.
But this got me thinking about where the lawyers, planners and architects fit in the planning system.
The lawyers are well educated but then so are the planners and architects.
So who is better qualified to make a judgement on a complex planning issue – like biodiversity, nutrient neutrality, badgers, Great Crested Newts and the like?
It’s a tough question.
But the law wins every time. Planning lawyers are the Gods. Planning Judges are the Supreme Gods.
Given that we have two sets of highly educated people with similar skills, why should one out-trump the other?
Which brings us to the question: should the law be as involved in the planning system as much as it?
Or for that matter should the Secretary of State have the power to call in applications for his own decision? He is the God of Gods.
Perhaps we need to take a long hard look at the whole system and start all over again and scrap all the current systems altogether.
As they say in Cork, when you ask for directions: if I were you I wouldn’t start from here.
Have a good weekend.
Tom
by the Planning PR guru 