Someone wondered if Councillor John Hodson would wear a hard hat to attend the November meeting of Aughton parish council...

They were being serious too - I think - but minus his protective head gear, the man who probably knows more about proposals contained in the controversial 30 year Borough plan that's being discussed was smartly turned out in for what proved to be a very informative meeting indeed.

The fact he was given a small round of applause after a marathon question session - he was on his feet for well over an hour and a quarter - is the measure of the man who both appreciated how competently the meeting was run and acquitted himself well to answer some 25 questions or so on what some may call a very sticky wicket.

It's here that QLocal's Roger Blaxall has to declare an interest; I have known John for well over 30 years from the days when the Advertiser used to send reporters to cover parish council meetings all over west Lancashire; John came to prominence if memory serves back when local postman Jack Edmundson was Tarleton PC parish clerk with John standing up to defend parts of the village from a massive new housing development. I've always found John on the level and a good communicator who knows his planning stuff which is why he was never out of his depth in Aughton, although one wag said he only answered four out of the many questions...

Ruddy faced and in animated style, he explained the pressures west Lancashire is under with national and regional planning policy, frequently reverting to the 'fiendishly difficult' phrase when trying to explain how the Council must reconcile the balances between developing brownfield land and fend off developers who'd love to concrete over prime green belt land, how best to develop Skem. - and the crazy way that UK planning law works with infrastructure planned AFTER any major development is passed rather than vica versa which happens in the US.

The 70 folk who attended were in the main well briefed and some were even sympathetic to Hodson's demanding brief as the face of the planning consultation. And without patronising them or blinding them with planning science he tried his best to explain why one 30 year plan is better than three ten years plans or two fifteen years plans - and how the proposals will be modified after public feedback.

Local feedback so far has been far from positive with local MP Rosie Cooper against the proposals and dark mutterings about what will happen to any Labour councillors who defy the party whip and don't buckle under and support the plan...