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I'm seriously thinking we should start to withdraw our labour on 'consultations', those of us who plough through planning applications and put in carefully considered comments, only to find, even if the local planning authority makes the right decision, that Boris or Eric says we were all wrong anyway and the developers are right. All we've accomplished is to allow the applicant to say they've 'consulted' the community, the experts or whoever, thus forfeiting any chance of appeal on grounds of improper procedure. Meanwhile the list of good buildings lost - so someone can turn a fast buck, and Osborne can claim economic recovery - gets longer and longer and the quality of what takes its place is frequently dire. Will Palin is spot-on.