Re: The trouble with the British...
As a Chairman of a Parish Council, I can say in my experience that the whole planning process is a total farce.
As an objector (usually, but not always) on behalf of my Parish, I get 3 minutes to talk at the start of the meeting before being cut off (literally placed on mute in these Zoom days). The District Councils' Planning Officer then gets to present all his information (no time limit) and interact with the Planning Committee for the whole of the meeting. We can't even respond to their lies (recently an application in my village was promoted by the PO to help support the local shop and bus service, neither of which we have had for years!)
If the applicant is ruled against by the by the Planning Committee they can go to appeal. If the objectors are ruled against we would have to go to the High Court (£70-80K) and the only grounds we can use is that the Councils processes were not followed correctly - not that the Planning Officer told blatant lies.
Planning Officers hold all the power and even Planning Ministers have been shown (court case last year) to allegedly take bribes (in that case a donation to their political party rather than individually. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53007018 )