| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST LEADER OF THE COUNCIL 31st July 2013 - the Sahota affair | |
| Posted by: | Victor Mishiku | |
| Date/Time: | 04/08/13 16:42:00 |
| I see that in another topic from Cllr. Dennehy, who made the original complaint against the Leader of the Council, Cllr. Julian Bell, he also raised questions about the "pre-application advice" procedure, which is, as we read on the Council's own website, chargeable to prospective planning applicants. See his Questions Nos. 1 - 10. From what has been said at full Council by Cllr. Julian Bell, he himself insists that the pre-arranged meeting was merely to render "pre-application" planning advice to Dr Onkar Singh Sahota and his Planning Consultant/Architect, who also attended along with the Director of the Environment Group Mr Noel Rutherford who was apparently roped in to be "introduced". The whole thing sounds very odd to me. You have two high-ranking political persons with one working for the other's political ally, the Southall MP, Virendra Sharma plus the Director, Mr Noel Rutherford no less. None of these persons are Town Planners though. The only person who likely qualifies for that would be the Planning Consultant/Architect who was also present. As Dr Sahota already has Planning Consultants, one wonders what Cllr. Julian Bell or Mr Noel Rutherford could add to that? What was the real purpose of the Meeting? That is what is baffling - I mean how many people could get the Leader of the Council and the Director of the Environment Group of Ealing Council down to their homes about a mere Householder Application? Ordinary people cannot even get to speak to a planning officer over the telephone anymore! You have to leave a number and sit by the phone for the next few days. One resident from 33 Woodville Road asked to speak to a Planning Officer to ask about Plans that he could not understand and was made to wait 12 days for an appointment. When he finally got there, the officer said that he could not possibly discuss a live case only give general planning advice! The resident was left none the wiser (and bearing in mind the 21 days or less given in which to respond was ticking away). Mr Rutherford declared on this Forum at the time of the controversial Friars Place Lane case on the "Goldsmith's Acton Estate", which also received a mass of postings on here, that all people would be treated equally in the planning process - no matter who they are and regardless of what their status may be. That comforting declaration seems to have been blown sky high! From the Cultural Dictionary: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" [A proclamation by the pigs who control the government in the novel "Animal Farm", by George Orwell. The sentence is a comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite] Victor Mishiku 4/8/13. NB. My full Formal Complaint against the Leader of Ealing Council, Cllr. Julian Bell, dated 31/7/13, can be seen at the following URL: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14377445/Complaint_letter_31stJuly2013.pdf It was e-mailed and hand-delivered to the Council 4 days ago and remains unacknowledged by Mrs Helen Harris, Head of Legal Services, LBE. |