Neighbourhood botch

‘Localisation’ is an expensive path to greater political corruption

The last time the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas played a part in national debate was in the 17th century, when — recent studies suggest — locals carved a rude chalk parody of Oliver Cromwell into a hillside. It failed to unsettle Cromwell, but the village may yet be the nemesis of another Oliver: Oliver Letwin, architect of the government’s pet policy of localism.

Cerne Abbas is one of 17 communities selected by the Department for Communities and Local Government to prepare a ‘neighbourhood plan’. This, theoretically, is the opposite of Labour’s top-down approach in which government planners in Whitehall or faceless and unelected ‘regional assemblies’ decided how land should be developed. The idea is that the community sits down and decides how many homes it wants built, how many should be affordable, and where they should go. So long as the plan is approved by 51 per cent of voters in a local referendum and does not break national and local planning policy, the local council would be obliged to follow it in making planning decisions.