With 6 unitary authorities, new Metro Mayors, County Councils as well as Welsh and Scottish elections all in May there has never been a better time to demystify the question on everyone’s pre-election lips – What is Purdah?

My youngest son turned four on Monday. One of my friends, who’s a local authority planner, and shan’t be named, gave him a Biff, Chip and Kipper book entitled ‘Save Pudding Wood’. Basically, it recounts a nirvana where deer run free, wild flowers grow, and children frolic serenely without a care in the world. Then an anonymous bunch (we only ever see a heavy-set bald man and a woman on mobile phone at the Town Hall) decide they are going to build homes on Pudding Wood. The residents get together, make a few placards, hold a meeting in the village hall, and march on the Civic Centre.  Everything ends happily ever after, as the plans for development are ditched, and the community goes back about its business.  The end.

Or is it?  I’m now busily contemplating writing up a follow up. It will be a two-part thriller. Part one will deal with the fact that for political reasons, the Council in question has felt compelled to freeze council tax for the fifth year running, and so as a consequence, has got to make cost savings elsewhere. They’ve ditched the planning department, and have got EasyPlanning providing a basic service from a remote office in Telford. Nobody can remember whether the council has a parks and open space department, but the outsourced estates department (run from a building control off-shoot in Hull) has decided to sell Pudding Wood for ‘best value’ – i.e. as much money as they can get regardless of the social or environmental logic. (I’m thinking 1984 meets London Fields).

The recent venture into the High Court by Tewkesbury Borough Council has left it facing not only two significant urban extensions it didn’t want, but also a no doubt sizable costs claim from the Secretary of State. However, the ramifications go well beyond its boundaries, as it may also signal the end of Localism – in concept, if not in terminology.