<b><b>Robert Jones argues that the devil is in the detail of the proposed planning reforms, questioning the scrapping of county planning, the status of emerging plans and the practicality of the new tariffs</b></b><br><b>I usually hate being tail-end Charlie. Being the final speaker on an occasion when everything has been said many times before, usually at inordinate length, and long after the audience has wanted to get on with whatever pleasures are on offer, is a most thankless task for a public speaker. </b><br><b>And yet there is something about the many articles and comments on planning reform that have appeared in the lay and specialist press that draws me back inexorably to the subject. Maybe it is simply my own fascination for the process that drives me on to keep commenting on the issue. But my view is that most commentators are missing the point, seduced by principle into neglecting practicalities.</b><br><b><b>ludicrous and arcane</b></b><br> For many, including my stable-mate Will Howie in last month&amp;’s Housebuilder, the big story is that of the large infrastructure projects, condemned until now to grind ludicrously slowly through the system as a result of the arcane public inquiry processes, yielding the same result at the end of …