<b><b>Will Howie looks at the Select Committee&amp;’s input to the planning Green Paper debate and argues that some of its thrusts - particularly on the environment - are way off the mark</b></b><br><b>Back in February when I discussed the Green Paper on the approach to planning procedures then just published by Lord Falconer, I welcomed the proposed reforms but questioned whether they would produce the better results that he wanted. Since then, the House of Commons Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions has examined the Green Paper and published its conclusions.</b><br><b>The committee&amp;’s report is a critical one, partly for the same reasons as those that prompted my hesitation but more strongly for its view of the main standpoint of the Green Paper, or at any rate what it thought was the main standpoint.</b><br><b><b>committee bias</b></b><br> What appears to me to be the committee&amp;’s bias could be spotted in one of its recommendations. It said &amp;“there is a &amp;‘business&amp;’ agenda running through the Green Paper. It largely ignores the environment while supporting business development. The planning system is the key bulwark in preventing urban sprawl and restraining unsustainable development and should not be subservient to the requirements of business. The …