Letter: Shropshire planners were incompetent over Tesco

Letter: I refer to the excellent letters by Andy Boddington of the CPRE, Shropshire, and others on the gross incompetence of Shropshire Council planning committee in dealing with the Tesco breach of planning permission at the Harlescott store.

As an architect, I find its naivety and lack of professionalism is beyond belief. Any responsible planning committee would have taken Tesco to task, demanded a resubmission of the application and imposed punitive sanctions on account of the violation of the original approval.

It therefore begs the question whether Shropshire planning committee has the experience, expertise and commitment to tackle major developers or whether its members are out of their depth.

Does Shropshire Council have any fully qualified planners/consultants providing professional advice? If so, they have failed badly and heads should roll.

Greater forethought is long overdue and necessary to safeguard our town.

Planners, when confronted with major developers, roll over irrespective of whether rules have been violated or incorrect information provided.

Developers know this and adopt a "laissez-faire" attitude to regulations, safe in the knowledge they are fire-proof and no punitive sanctions will be incurred.

To quote the words of John Reid (Labour MP) Shropshire planning committee and their consultants "are not fit for purpose".

However, all is not gloom and doom – you can sit back and enjoy the fun and laughter of the next Shirehall farce entitled "The Sale and Development of the Municipal Golf Course" with the usual all-star cast.

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