Planning meetings should be public

What is the significance of these dates? These are the dates when planning authorities in East Sussex introduced the right for the public, either as objectors or as supporters for an individual application, to speak at Planning Committee meetings.

No council once it has introduced this right has ever turned the clock back. No council to my knowledge has even indicated that giving the public the right to speak has even slowed down the process of planning.

So why is Rother the only council not to give people what elsewhere in East Sussex is seen as a valuable democratic right, which they have all enjoyed for at least the last thirteen years?

Stephen Hardy

George Close, Robertsbridge