Ten Alps

PLANNING WARS

6th January 2009

“It’s like fighting a war! My husband and I have been in this house all our married life and now it’s going to be buried under the runway.”

Linda McCutcheon is one of an army of campaigners battling against the odds to prevent a third runway being built at Heathrow Airport.

A decision is promised this January, and the PM seems to be in favour. If the scheme goes ahead Sipson, the village that’s been home to Linda and her family for more than 40 years, will be wiped out. Around 700 homes will be flattened.

Planning Wars reveals the growing battles between developers and people who just don’t want the places where they live to be taken over by new building. The Heathrow battle is typical of confrontations right across Britain.

But planning wars aren’t just on a massive scale. At Ingleby Arncliffe in Yorkshire, a heated row has been raging for five long years over a single home built on a plot between existing houses.

Angry neighbours say the two storey house towers over neighbouring properties, damages the look of their village, and must be demolished.The home only had outline planning permission but, despite the approval of the council’s planning officials, every modification proposed has been rejected.

The develop's thrown in the towel, winding up the business and suffering a loss he puts at £400,000. The council will have to pay to demolish the house. Ironically a new property will inevitably be built in its place.

Even with the credit crunch, the Government wants three million new homes to be built in the next decade, along with all the infrastructure that goes with them. So this planning war could be mirrored everywhere, because small infill plots between existing homes will have to be developed right across the country to meet the demand.

The alternative is to build in the green belt. And there lies yet another Planning Wars battleground. In the dash for more homes, up to 10,000 acres of green belt land could be sacrificed and most of that will be in the South East of England.

But supporters for new developments say more homes are desperately needed to meet increasing demand, and they add that more building is crucial to the recovery of the British economy.

Planning Wars also investigates battles over a wind farm in the countryside, and a huge rail freight terminal, as ordinary British people organise protests to defend their way of life.

Planning Wars is produced, directed and filmed by Bob Jefford.
The executive producer is Roger Graef.