What takes time is:
Drawing up the plans, detailed enough to put into action.
Getting an environmental impact assessment done by someone in qualified green wellies.
Submitting a planning application which takes months to be passed from District Council to County Council to Prescott
who then appoints an ex-military officer as a planning inspector.
Who gives loads of notice to NIMBYs, parish councils, district councils, county councils, regional assemblies, Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
Then the said NIMBYs, councils, etc get to state their objections. Public Inquiries work 4 or 5 day weeks, 3-4 hours a day. So they take months, if not years. Lawyers get paid ££££.
Then the ex-military officer submits his report to Government. Delay whilst Prescott is taught to read (or has it read to him).
Government waits until they can put a positive spin on the announcement, or hide it.
Approval is given.
BAA holds a party.
Tenders are put out giving companies time to respond.
Tenders are assessed. Further negotiations occur. A start date is agreed.
The start date is delayed because of unforeseen circumstances (it rains, or the skip doesn't show up).
Concrete gets poured.
Workers go on strike.
Further delays when they discover lesser-spotted Reggie Spotters are nesting on the site. Also, Swampy has set up home on the site and the stench is too awful to approach him. (And turfing him off private land is probably an infringement of his 'human' rights.)
Cracks are discovered in the concrete and it transpires that the cheapest possible concrete was ordered from a dubious cove with a Russian accent in a raincoat in a pub in Bishops Stortford. (have you heard a raincoat with a Russian accent?).
Due to previous delays the painters can't start until they've finished Mrs Entwhistle's dining room.
Handover day approaches, and it's getting on for twenty past eight (or 2020).
