Planning in a fine predicament

British Waterways, which owns the site, and has kindly given permission for the party, hopes that work will start next spring on its 10 houses, 2 flats, boating shop and office, cafe, and pedestrian/cycle bridge. The architect's drawings of the scheme showed narrowboats tied up in front of the little houses. There seems little chance of that, since the moorings will be private.

The best that can be said of the development is that it will tidy up a now derelict area and provide better access to the station. The worst is that it represents another missed opportunity to add significantly to the amenities of Jericho. When the site next door - the Nelson Street former home of Architectural Antiques - became available for development at the same time, it seemed there might be a golden opportunity to improve life in Jericho. Proposals for the two sites went for approval at the same planning meeting in 1993. Pleas that they be considered together in order to maximize the planning gain fell on ears which, if not entirely deaf, could hear only one voice clearly - that of the developers. The Nelson Street site now houses a student block for Worcester College. Could the Council have done any different?

Gone are the days when the Council led planning. It is no longer proactive but reactive, with little power to take planning decisions. It is now a pawn in a larger battle between central government and local government. The Planning Committee can only delay decisions - and then only for a short period. Several years ago it had to pay a fine of £75,000 when a developer appealed to the Secretary of State against their continued opposition to a proposed development in the station area.

Understandably perhaps, the Planning Committee now seem to have lost its nerve. In the light of this it seems unlikely that the six further canal corridor developments will be as good for the area as they should be. Each will be decided piecemeal, on its merits. The planners have limited powers. They argue that since developers own particular pieces of land, they may develop them to suit themselves within the law. When the developers sell, however, as they intend to, it is not they but we who will have to live with the consequences.