My husband is a Chartered Surveyor, but he doesn't survey houses: he specialises in minerals extraction rights, mines, quarries, and landfills.
Part of his work involves making planning applications for these things which are, although very necessary, extremely unpopular. The planning applications he's involved in attract a very large amount of local opposition. Petitions are raised, websites are opened, letters are written and protests are organised.
A lot of effort is put into all of these objections, but it rarely has any effect whatsoever on the planning process because the people who make these objections fail to do one simple thing: they don't look at the requirements of the planning application system before submitting their objections.
Consequently, many of the objections which are raised against such applications--in some cases, all of them--are not eligible to be considered by the planning committees who pass judgement on the applications even if they make valid and useful points (which they often don't, but that's another issue!).
I have seen several of these open letters now and each time I see a new one, I wonder: have the people sending them read, understood, and complied with the requirements of the receiving Court? Because if not, they might just as well save their breath.
Unless, of course, they don't care what the DoJ thinks of their open letter, and their prime motivation is to be seen to be objecting to stuff.
