| Topic: | Further inconsistencies after the Council Leader's "admission" of involvement | |
| Posted by: | Victor Mishiku | |
| Date/Time: | 17/07/13 15:40:00 |
| I think local residents should also make a complaint to the Legal Services Director and I have some further comments to make following last night's "admission" by Cllr. Julian Bell at the Town Hall that it is true that he was involved with Dr Sahota giving him "Pre-Application" advice. Also present at No.43 we are told was the superior officer to the Head of Planning, Ms Aileen Jones, namely the Director of the Environment Group, Mr Noel Rutherford (formerly a Building Control officer) at LBE. Yesterday evening (16/7/13) at the Town Hall main Council Meeting, I was very perplexed to hear Cllr. Julian Bell, the Labour Leader of our once-respected Ealing Council, claiming that he (an employee of a prominent Labour Southall MP who is a very close colleague of Labour GLA Member for Ealing & Hillingdon and politician Dr Onkar Singh Sahota), had been merely giving "PRE-APPLICATION ADVICE" to Dr Sahota in respect of his Householder Planning Application for the dwellinghouse he purchased at 43 Castlebar Road. As I recall, there is no mention at all in the Council's Householder Application paperwork of Cllr. Julian Bell's involvement or of the details of the planning advice that was procured from Cllr. Bell. Note that it was a mere "Housholder Application" - how could that merit such important Labour dignitaries being assembled in our road in this undeclared gathering? Why has this information been withheld from neighbours and residents in the Haven Green Conservation Area on the planning file? Cllr. Julian Bell revealed last night that the "Assistant" Director, Mr Noel Rutherford as he described him, was also in attendance at 43 Castlebar Road to give more pre-application advice to Dr Sahota. Firstly, I thought Mr Rutherford was the Director of the Environment Group, which includes the Planning Division headed by Ms Aileen Jones. Has he been demoted? But since when was Cllr.Julian Bell a planning expert? Is Cllr. Bell a Chartered Town Planner and a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute qualified to advise about the proposed "Playroom" underground and the single-storey Extension in the back garden of Dr Sahota's property (one of his 8 or so properties)? Noel Rutherford was a Building Control Officer as far as I know before he was promoted after Mr Richard Kirby left. I was not aware that Mr Rutherford was a planning expert either and I am very surprised that Mr Rutherford should be called upon to render pre-application planning advice at all. I have never known him do so on this Estate for a house extension, etc. (a mere "Householder" application to boot - not even a normal planning application). I frankly fail to see what useful pre-application advice either of the so-called "planning advisers" could render and I would like to see a summary of what the supposed "pre-application advice" actually was, since Cllr. Bell said last night in the main chamber of Ealing Town Hall that neither he nor Mr Rutherford had made any notes of the meeting at 43 Castlebar Road! The planning application to effectively butcher the grand Victorian dwellinghouse at 43 Castlebar Road is grossly unneighbourly and would be an eyesore, especially viewed from Longfield Walk and would be totally out of character with the adjoining Castlebar Road houses also built by James Wills in the 1880s for Edward Wood Esq, the owner of the "Hanger Hill Estate, Ealing" and benefactor to the then Ealing Board in the 1880s and it was thrown out by the Planning Committee on Wednesday 13th March 2013, at which I attended. At the Planning Committee on 13th March 2013, not a single Member of the Committee voted to approve Dr Sahota's application [it is also to be noted that the application was submitted with incorrect information giving the applicant's name as "Dr Sahota Onkar" (i.e. with his name reversed) and also incorrectly stating that the applicant's address was at the house in Castlebar Road, when in fact Dr Sahota and family all live in Southall and are on the current Electoral Register as living there]. The application was thus REFUSED by the Committee members of which openly criticised the officer's Report as being "in defiance of reality" "not to be trusted" "absurd" and "an insult to the intelligence" - so much for Cllr. Bell's pre-application planning advice! I am afraid to say that this whole matter is disturbing and distasteful. If this is a Southall-style politics takeover, it is not welcome here on our Estate, which is also protected by covenants which not even an important Labour Party politician, developer and Ealing GLA Member such as Dr Onkar Singh Sahota (or Dr Sahota Onkar as he calls himself on his Application Form) can easily brush aside. I am sure that if the former Labour Planning Committee Chairman, the much-respected Northolt-based Cllr. Frank Impey and the former Acton-based Labour Party Leader, Cllr. John Cudmore were still in office, this kind of thing would not have taken place. Indeed, Cllr. Cudmore pledged before coming into office in May 1994 that: “Council planners will work closely with local communities..” “Nature conservation will be an important priority..” “New buildings must add to the character of the area not destroy it.” “Planning decisions must take account of the feelings of local people.” “We are opposed to backland development.” “Labour is committed to maintaining existing conservation areas and to introducing new ones with local community support.” The Fourth Pledge: How was that fourth pledge observed in the recent Hanwell case at "Oak Wharf" one might ask, where the wishes of some 450 objectors were totally disregarded by ALL the Labour Members of the Planning Committee and the application was then pushed through on the casting vote of the Labour Chairman, Cllr. Chris Summers in the absence of Cllr. Abdullah Gulaid, the one Labour member of the Committee who has shown that he does care for the plight of local residents. Why he was absent has not been explained - his name was on the Agenda sheet? Had Cllr. Gulaid been there, I suspect that the application to build 4 houses on Metropolitan Open Land would have been refused. Victor Mishiku 17/7/13 |