Oxford City Council’s desire to allow development on its own car parks in Summertown, St Clements and Headington does appear to smack of desperation.

The question we ask is whether it is desperation to raise some cash or is it desperation to find available land for development within the city boundaries?

Our guess is that it is more the former than the latter. Indeed, the two objectives are often linked when it comes to the development of council land and the suspicion often remains that the desire to raise cash can lead to a less than rigorous approach to the planning issues.

We have argued before that councils should not be allowed to take planning decisions on schemes that they are promoting directly or that they stand to gain from financially.

However much you argue that the council acts totally independently as a planning authority — and there are examples where the city council planners have thwarted council plans — you also have to be seen to be acting appropriately.

If we take the example of St Clements car park, which is the most advanced of any of the schemes for development, there are clear issues with the development.

This week we report that the police have major concerns about it. While it has been designed to retain an element of car parking, that design has led to concerns that it could attract unlawful activity.

One of the city’s leading architects, Alan Berman, has also written a letter identifying significant issues with the design of the St Clements proposals and their suitability for this quarter of the city.

Added to that is the strong opposition of local shopkeepers who see the proposals as the death knell for their businesses.

Can the city council really be seen to be acting as an independent planning authority if it approves the scheme in the face of this opposition? In many ways, it is damned if it does approve it and damned — by the loss of some much-needed cash — if it does not.

There are many other examples of councils acting as judge and jury on their own schemes whether it be wind turbines, incinerators or a school building.

It should not be difficult to change the system to ensure that no council takes a decision on a planning application either promoted by itself or from which it directly benefits.

An independent planning inspectorate already exists which could take on this role.

Also, a neighbouring authority ought to be able provide an independent verdict on many planning applications. And there is no reason why such a system should cost any extra money.