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Parish Councils (Planning)

Planning officers in rural areas need to be both proactive and sensitive, which we hope are not mutually exclusive. There are arguments over matters which sound prosaic to people in urban areas—disused barns, for example. Often communities want to reuse those facilities for some form of enterprise or sometimes for housing, even affordable housing, but they are ignored. That is one of the frustrations of the planning system. I hope that the Government will encourage the new planning officers to take account of such views.