Two Sandwiches short of a Picnic
AS PART OF ANY PLANNING APPLICATION, so we are told, one of the major areas
which are reviewed is the impact the new construction might have on existing
facilities. For that we, all of us, employ a planning department through our
own, very generous, payment of taxes.
Applicants might, for example, apply to, erect a steel and concrete tower within inches of a road, on a bend, where there is regular mud, and an infamous winter fog. And where the road is single laned and already hard to negotiate. BUT our Planning departments weed out such silly ideas quickly and the applicants have to think again, taking into account not only their wishes, but the dangers that their ideas might bring to the location.
So why did Our beloved ECDC approve the erection of the Eiffel Tower on Prior Fen, within inches of the roadside, when there are zillions of Acres they could have chosen from? And then surround it with concrete blocks to protect it.. from traffic?
My inside informer from the local parish council informed me (no names, I have to protect my sources, but it cost me a few pints in the snug to obtain the empirical info) that our own LOCAL council objected, yet the big boys, at Ely, ignored their pleas in favour of EDF or the land owner.
Every month in this organ, (The Crier) we get a half page of self righteous "I've done this & we've done that" from our elected County Councillors, yet they seem to have slept through this one.
Has the same Planning Authority approved a car parking area adjacent to it, for visitors to this marvellous Parisian site or the new Swaffham Prior A&E Dept to service those who dare to pass it in the mud and fog? (Bilingual Nursing staff need only apply, must be fluent in French and Spanish, English would be a bonus).
I doubt it, but I am equally certain that, when they have their annual picnic aside it next year, they will be short of more than just a few sandwiches!