CITY Labour MP Andrew Smith has welcomed a Conservative proposal to allow people to appeal against approval given for controversial planning applications.

The Oxford East MP backed the proposal by Newton Abbot, Devon, MP Anne Marie Morris in a Commons debate.

Under the present system a builder can appeal to the independent Planning Inspectorate to overturn a council’s refusal of planning permission, such as for housing and retail developments.

But residents cannot go to the inspectorate to try and overturn a council’s decision to approve such plans.

Mr Smith told Tuesday’s debate said: “Does she agree that what ought to be at issue is not a question of more or less development, but of the quality of planning decisions?”

He said a developer “can keep appealing to get the decision that they want” but a resident “has no right of appeal other than judicial review”.

Mr Smith said of the proposal: “It would empower people to balance things out.”

Ms Morris said the “community right of appeal” is needed as the current way of opposing planning permission, judicial review, is “an expensive process that few communities can afford”.

But planning minister Brandon Lewis said: “A community right of appeal at the end of the process is too late to allow meaningful engagement and has the potential to slow down or even prevent sustainable and appropriate development.”

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