The Guardian is becoming increasingly hysterical about deep sea mining. Articles here and here. To add to that Billy Hague piece we critiqued here. The demand is that there should be a pause, everyone should have more time to think this through and so on. Or, as it might also be put, hit the issue into the long grass where it can be strangled by ignoring it. Note, not issuing the rules for a licence would achieve the goal of not ever issuing a licence, after all.

The particular and specific issue here is the set up. An exploitation licence - as opposed to an exploration one - is, in effect, a shall issue licence. Two years after someone says well, what are the rules here, can we have a licence please, that exploitation licence must be issued. Or at least the rules for one must be. Note “must”. It is not possible to argue for more time, greater consideration and then lose the issue in the bureaucracy.

Which is exactly why the issue is coming to a head here. Either those rules, that licence, gets issued or the reason why not has to be published and defended. With, obviously, the opportunity for court action and so on against any refusal.

To go from that general to the very particular. One of us recently applied for a holiday let licence in one of the minor continental countries. The expectation was that this would take months, if not years, as the desire to not issue them - already well known and telegraphed - meant lost paperwork and echoes of Kafka. Except the national government had changed the rules. If the licence was not denied within 7 days then it was automatically issued. Indeed it came through, via email, 7 days later, within minutes in fact of the filing time (not just date) plus 168 hours.

We think this idea should be more generally applied. In fact, not generally, but universally. Every licence, every permission, for everything, becomes a shall issue one. There is a specific time period, 7 days sounds good, in which the bureaucracy can say no. Can say no while pointing to the specific law they are saying no under, the reason why, in a form that can then be used in a court to test the power of the bureaucracy to do that. Failure to issue such a denial within those 7 days means that the licence is automatically granted. One granted it is not appealable.

This applies to pylons across the countryside, fracking plants, planning permissions for housing, everything.

We insist that the planning bureaucracy micturate or get off the pot. That phrase can be modified for less family friendly conversations.

Note that this doesn’t stop planning. It does though stop delay in planning. So, everyone should support it, right?