An election warning.

We are little more than 150 days away from local elections here in Havering, and the campaigning is an insult to people’s intelligence. We deserve better from our politicians and those who want to be.

During my time as a councillor one thing has stood out above everything else. Political campaigning has almost nothing to do with reality. What do I mean by that?

Take the issue of planning and overdevelopment. Almost every political party has, at some point, promised to stop the overdevelopment of Romford and Havering. There have been campaigns against tower blocks, we’ve all blamed Mayor Khan, we get upset about the stretched NHS services… quite rightly to. But the reality is that the council and local politicians have very limited powers around this.

I don’t want to turn this into a blog about planning but bear with me for a few minutes and I’ll explain.

National government sets housing targets and planning law, we cannot change these or ignore these. London also has its own level of laws and targets, Essex does, every area does. When someone comes to Havering Council for planning permission, they will have made sure that they meet all these requirements. This makes it near impossible for us to decline their application.

You see, if Havering says “no” then the applicant will appeal. If Havering loses the appeal, which is overseen by national government, we get a fine. Lose too many and we lose all control over our planning and decisions will only be made by either the GLA or government.

Havering’s planning committee is pretty much pointless, partly due to the rules above and partly due to a lack of genuine interest or input from councillors. I attended one recently where a major development received just 12 minutes of questions from councillors, almost all were on parking. The ridiculous part of that being that the developer, according to London planning laws, isn’t allowed to build parking!

We can agree that the system needs changing, it does, but electing a new set of councillors doesn't do that. They have as much power over planning targets and law as they do over the sale of pineapples in Beijing.

Council planning committees are supposed to be where we work with developers to extract best value for our residents. Whining on about parking is a waste of everyone’s time, no one in the room can do anything about it. Yet, even the planning Chairman had a grumble about it.

So, we come to the election promises. We are seeing a re-run of the same old planning grumbles. Those who want to be in power are filling our letterboxes with promises to stop developments and fight the planning system. This happened in 2022, with the HRA’s planning spokesperson giving long videos about how bad things are, only to get in power and they cry that nothing can be done.

If we do stand up and reject planning applications, then Havering will be forced to hand over control of our planning to the government.

Let’s be clear, any councillor candidate who knows anything about planning will not promise you that they will "stop the overdevelopment". If they promise you this then it is because they either don’t know how it works or are willing to let you down once in power.

Only MPs and Parliament can solve our planning and overdevelopment problem. If you want Romford to stop being 'overdeveloped' then we need our MP. That's the level at which planning laws are set and changed, by MPs engaging in committees and debates on planning, in Parliament.

We’re being promised a range of things that cannot be delivered. If we do stand up and reject planning applications, then Havering will be forced to hand over control of our planning to the government. I am quite confident that we don’t want that. If we ‘leave London’ then we don’t escape this planning control, we still answer to government and can still lose planning powers. If you know anything about this government’s building plans for Essex then you know that we really shouldn’t be flirting with that idea.

There is a way forward here. We could elect politicians who promise to work with developers, to develop better local planning laws, who will help set up Neighbourhood Plans to give residents control. But we’re not being promised that, we’re being promised fantasy and nonsense.

When I read the current election campaign materials I despair, the people of Romford and Havering are being insulted, we’re being deceived. Trust in politicians is at a low, trust in the traditional parties is at a low, this should be a chance for those who do different. Instead, we are seeing political parties regurgitating the same old guff.

In the Mawneys area residents have got together and pushed and negotiated hard with the developer of the Como St car park. Have we stopped the development? Not yet. But, we have got them to scale down and make changes. This is what we need from politicians, sensible engagement that secures results. Not nonsense promises.

Over the next 150 so days you will be lied to, tricked, promised nonsense, sold magic beans and snake oil, told that all our problems are caused by ‘others’. Ignore these people, or challenge them. When they say “ we will do X” ask them “how?”. When you get an answer go and research it. Go to ChatGPT and say “I’ve just been told by a local politician that they will achieve X by doing Y. What are the chances this can actually be done and what are the consequences”. Don’t trust what you’re being told on the doorstep or the leaflets.

In fact, don’t even trust what I write. Not blindly anyway, I’ve made a claim about us losing control of planning if we say “no”. Go research that and see if I am right.

The next election is make or break for Havering. “At least they are not the other lot” is not a reason to vote for someone. Don’t let the politicians and wannabes insult our intelligence and take us for granted.

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