Cranfield must be fruitful territory for the Imbies.
An imby says 'In my back yard', not that, in the UK, we refer to our gardens as yards but americanisation will creep in.
An imby can be a homeowner or they can be an eagle-eyed developer seeing long swathes of 1950 and 1960s homes with their 1950s and 1960s gardens stretching into the far horizon. This sort of development can be either standard back fill which preoccupies the PC a lot or simply bigger and better extensions.
Amazingly Eric Pickles the head of DeeCleg (Department of Communities and Local Government) came up with a proposal to allow extensions plans to be double the size they are at the moment without requiring planning permission.
This was barmy for several reasons.
First it was supposed to kick start the housing economy. That is a massive job and will not be done with a few conservatories. Secondly it is reported that about 90 per cent of extensions beyond the current threshhold for planning applications are approved anyway - so this will just let through some very bad applications. Lastly if it was successful loads more free space will be concreted over risking both floods and drought because water is carried away in drains instead of sinking into aquifers.
Anyway Eric is in a bit of a Pickle now because there was a rebellion in the House of Commons this week over this plan and some of Eric's own backbenchers opposed it. It got through with a tight majority. The Royal Town Planning Institute says it is worried that the new law would permit more than half of a garden to be covered as the proposed 50 per cent cap includes drives and sidepaths.
An imby says 'In my back yard', not that, in the UK, we refer to our gardens as yards but americanisation will creep in.
An imby can be a homeowner or they can be an eagle-eyed developer seeing long swathes of 1950 and 1960s homes with their 1950s and 1960s gardens stretching into the far horizon. This sort of development can be either standard back fill which preoccupies the PC a lot or simply bigger and better extensions.
Amazingly Eric Pickles the head of DeeCleg (Department of Communities and Local Government) came up with a proposal to allow extensions plans to be double the size they are at the moment without requiring planning permission.
This was barmy for several reasons.
First it was supposed to kick start the housing economy. That is a massive job and will not be done with a few conservatories. Secondly it is reported that about 90 per cent of extensions beyond the current threshhold for planning applications are approved anyway - so this will just let through some very bad applications. Lastly if it was successful loads more free space will be concreted over risking both floods and drought because water is carried away in drains instead of sinking into aquifers.
Anyway Eric is in a bit of a Pickle now because there was a rebellion in the House of Commons this week over this plan and some of Eric's own backbenchers opposed it. It got through with a tight majority. The Royal Town Planning Institute says it is worried that the new law would permit more than half of a garden to be covered as the proposed 50 per cent cap includes drives and sidepaths.
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