Greater Norwich Development Partnership Joint Core Straetgy DPD

The Independent Inquiry into the Greater Norwich Development Partnership's Joint Core Strategy will open on 9th November at  the King's Centre, Kings Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH and a Programme Officer has been appointed to carry out the role of managing the day to day arrangements.

The Planning Inspectorate's website states that the Programme Officer's office arrangements should be as follows:

• Very close to the Hearing venue and separate for the LPA Planning Department
• Accessible to all members of the public during normal office hours
• Equipped with the usual desks, chairs, filing cabinets, stationery etc. A direct phone line and separate fax line are necessary, as is an answering machine. A photocopier should be provided, which can be used to copy documents for visitors, at either minimal or no charge

The post of Programme Officer is actually an appointment made by the Local Authority or in our case  the Greater Norwich Development Partnership and the Programme Officer working on this Examination is based in Sudbury at what appears to be a home address and with only a mobile phone number as a contact number. This all seems totally at odds with what has been set out by the Planning Inspectorate and one must question why GNDP chose to employ a Programme Officer so far away from the Inquiry venue and the members of the public affected by the JCS who would normally be expected to make use of the office facilities that should have been offered.

Anyone who elects to make a submission has to provide 6 copies of the submission plus 6 copies of the documentation supporting their submission and this can amount to a great deal of paper. When one also factors in the fact that many organisations and individuals are unpaid and making their submissions in their own time without the support of consultants and administration staff it is not surprising that the task is totally overwhelming for many people and the process hardly seems fair or acceptable.