| Topic: | Cllr. Julian Bell - Planning Adviser? | |
| Posted by: | Victor Mishiku | |
| Date/Time: | 19/07/13 12:27:00 |
| In his answer on Tuesday night (16th July 2013), Cllr. Julian Bell claimed at full Council that there is an established protocol practice in cases in this Borough where a politician makes a planning application, which Cllr. Bell stated is done to ensure "transparency". It seems that in this instance, the reverse is the case! In 1988, when Cllr. Gareth Daniel was the Labour Party Planning Supremo in L.B.Ealing (he later left Ealing to become the Chief Executive of Brent Council), all access to planning files was suddenly cut off. At the time, Cllr. Daniel stated that he had personally approved the steps taken by the then Assistant Chief Planning Officer (Mr Richard Kirby who was ex-Haringey). We did not really believe this and we were later proven to be correct. The Planning Department put out a statement that the new measures were so as to accord with the "Access To Information Act 1985"! Someone wrote in to the local press saying "if that is the case, then the Act is clearly misnamed". In the instant Dr Sahota affair, it seems slightly similar - an undeclared meeting of dignitaries, an all Labour Party affair, things are done behind our backs with no consultation; no minutes taken or any record kept - even though some 7 or 8 months later, an FOI request starts bringing things that were kept in the dark out into light. Cllr Bell confirmed in the Town Hall Chamber that no notes were taken of this meeting at which Dr Sahota was given "pre-application advice" about his intended planning application. I am not sure but do we have the exact date of this now infamous "Sahota/Bell/Rutherford" meeting at 43 Castlebar Road? (the home of James Wills, the builder of the 128 year-old dwellinghouse that Dr Sahota now seeks to butcher). As a neighbour pointed out, if no notes were made either on site or off site, not even a summary at the time or even back at the Council offices/Town Hall, one wonders how the FOI Officer (whoever that is?) is now able to give details of the meeting and what it was about? As I enquired before, what qualifications does Cllr. Julian Bell have to give planning advice to an applicant for a Householder Planning Application? Did Cllr. Bell for instance seek to visit or view from adjacent properties to estimate then effect of the 5-directional extensions proposed by Dr Sahota? Did Cllr. Bell assess the views from Longfield Walk noticing the harmonious rear elevations and complete lack of rear glass box dormers on all of Victorian houses built by James Wills 128 years ago? Did Cllr. Bell consider the impact on the Conservation Area houses or the disruption to Longfield Walk or the fact that Dr Sahota greedily even plans to build over the side passage with rooms up against the house wall of No.41 next door undermining the stability of that house and blocking off all easy access to the side of both houses for roof, chimnney and guttering repairs forever? Similarly, why would the Director of the Environment Group who is the direct superior to the Head of Planning, Ms Aileen Jones, be giving "pre-application advice" when planning is not even his expertise - no doubt he was an excellent Building Control Officer, but he is not a Town Planner as far as we know. As it turned out, this "pre-application advice" must have been extremely poor for the Planning Committee to reject Dr Sahota's application in no uncertain terms. The planning officer's report to Committee fully supporting Dr Sahota was publicly criticised by members of all three political parties. On the evening of 13th March 2013, in the Town Hall Chamber, the criticisms made against the Planning Department officer's report (said to have been written by Ms Fiona Abrahamsen, who left the Council's employment during the case), which had been fully supported by her planning manager, Ms Alex Jackson, included remarks that: "the report is in defiance of reality" and that it was "not to be trusted" "absurd" and "an insult to the intelligence". I have never heard such words of condemnation used publicly in all my 27 years of attending Planning Committees in Ealing. I am wondering if Dr Sahota got even more "pre-application" advice from any another senior person in the Council and if so, did that person know of the un-minuted "Sahota - Bell - Rutherford" pre-application advice meeting at 43 Castlebar Road. Developers have to pay for "pre-application" advice I believe. Did Dr Sahota pay or was it "on the house" courtesy of the Labour chief? I examined the planning file for 43 Castlebar Road and requested copies of various plans and papers when we were responding to the application, which got rushed through to Committee, but I never saw any meeting notes of this said "pre-application" advice unlike in other cases, where a developer may have paid to have a meeting with planning officers (but not with the Leader of the Council or the Director being present) and then later it gets minuted as a typed transcript and placed on file. As I said before if Labour Planning Chairman Frank Impey and Labour Leader John Cudmore were still in office, I believe that this sort of thing would never have occurred. Yours sincerely, Victor Mishiku 19/7/13. PS. In 1988, when all access to planning files was cut off by Mr Kirby, one of the reasons later given was that local people he referred to as "The Covenant Movement" were coming into Planning Reception and asking to see files, etc and this was time-consuming, so it was better, he said, that no one should have access at all until 3 days before the Committee Meeting (the minimum period for access in those days before Freedom of Information came in)! Of course, just 3 days before the Committee Meeting meant that there was no time to write in to have your comments included in the officer's report to Committee (reports are drafted about 14 days before the night of the Committee Meeting). Against that hostile background forced on us by the Labour Party and their operatives, we still nonetheless managed to defeat backland developers left, right and centre by use of restrictive covenants when the planning system failed people. Aftermath: It took me 13 months to get this reversed and in May 1990, following a change of administration, Cllr. Norman Pointing and Mr John Birch (Chief Planning Officer) re-drafted all Council planning arrangements including giving "open access" to planning files and papers, as we have to this day. |