TIME FOR OUR LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO GET BEHIND THE RURAL ECONOMY

In a county like Norfolk, a prosperous rural economy is vital, writes Tom Corfield. You would like to think that our local authorities, which are tasked with the economic wellbeing of the areas they control, would be enthusiastic supporters of ensuring such rural prosperity happens.  But the reality is somewhat different.

Nationally, the policy is very clear.  The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that local policies and decisions should enable ‘the sustainable growth and expansion of all types of business in rural areas’, the ‘development and diversification of agricultural and other land-based businesses’, and ‘sustainable rural tourism and leisure developments which respect the character of the countryside’.

The framework is explicit about tackling some of the challenges inherent in such development.  It says that planning policies and decisions should ‘recognise that sites to meet local business and community needs in rural areas may have to be found near or adjacent to or beyond existing settlements, and in locations that are not well served by public transport’.

It goes on to say that such developments should be sensitive to their surroundings, not have an unacceptable impact on local roads, and exploit any opportunities to make a location more sustainable.

But the thrust of the framework is clear: local planning authorities should be doing all they can to support the development of rural businesses.

Sadly, this is often not the case; those seeking to develop and/or diversify their businesses in the countryside routinely come up against resistance, bureaucracy and delay from those very same local authorities.

We see residential conversion decisions taking 12 months; resistance to Class Q applications for agricultural buildings despite national policy being clearly supportive; similar resistance to applications for livestock buildings (which magically melts away when the application is changed to ‘general purpose building’); reams of paperwork required to solar panel applications despite government encouragement of such schemes; and opposition to storage container sites.

We need to see local authorities supporting applications from rural businesses, and taking a pragmatic approach when it comes to responses from statutory consultees like Highways.  We don’t live in a perfect world, and much of our rural road network is not well-developed, but if the proposal is proportionate in terms of size and scale and it allows a rural business to diversify, then planning decisions need to look at the bigger picture.

And while we have Permitted Development and Prior Notification routes available, these should be expanded and simplified to allow our farming businesses to get on building that prosperous rural economy.