Implementation of The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006), the National Policy Planning Framework and the Fenland Local Plan. by Fianna (Fiona Russell Dodwell)

Planning permission is

No we can’t include those papers as we haven’t seen them

and That’s not officially on the agenda

It’s Don’t ask the District Council staff

and Mr Mishandlin doesn’t want to know

It’s Mr Stall and Mrs Hasten go back a long

l   o   n   g

way

 

Planning permission is

Well technically it’s illegal

but people turn a blind eye

in Phittlesey.

It’s They can’t do anything if you do it at the weekend

call it Backlands Development

not Conservation Area

in the plans.

 

Planning permission is

European Protected Species?

We’ll be out of Europe soon

I don’t want bats in my belfry –

that’s a good one

hahaha!

I don’t give a flying fuck

about breeding birds!

My mother hated starlings.

 

Planning permission is

What Poplars?

there’s no trees on these plans!

Oh, NEWTS!

(what newts?)

Flavour of the bloody month!

E   COL   O   GY!

Board up that fence

so they can’t reach the pond!

(what pond?)

 

Planning permission is

Don’t ask the neighbours!

well don’t give them time to answer anyway

nosey sods.

It’s Infill, backfill

right up your street

right up to there mate

take it up to here mate

only been here 15 years mate?

..

Fianna  (Fiona Russell Dodwell) is from Fife and lives in the Fens. Her first poems were published in Ink Sweat & Tears, and since then she has had about 50 poems published, both online and in print.