| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dr Onkar Sahota's application in Haven Green rejected | |
| Posted by: | Judith Jaafar | |
| Date/Time: | 17/08/13 03:06:00 |
| I was present at the Planning Committee meeting on 13th March, in the upper public gallery. First time I've ever been to such a thing, but then I've never had someone try to dig a basement recreational area next to me nor try to join their house to mine so I can never again reach my flank wall, guttering or chimneys on that side of my property. The meeting was embarrassing in the extreme. The planning officer tasked with defending the indefensible favourable recommendation of the planning department could hardly string a sentence together. She mumbled incomprehensibly not into the mic and was constantly requested to speak up more clearly. It was obvious she had no clue about the case and had been thrown in at the deep end, as the original case officer had left, in unknown circumstances, not long before. This new officer had never even made a site visit to the property, at least not one that we know about. Of the 13 committee members, 7 are Labour (in-built majority), the rest mixed Tories and Lib Dems. All Labour members declared an interest at the outset, that they had campaigned with Dr. Sahota or knew him, but said this would not influence their decision. Ten voted against the application, none for, with three abstentions. In that respect Dr. Sahota is correct - the proposal was so awful that even his own political colleagues voted against it. But why did the planners push so hard to get this application through, even though it breached all their planning guidelines? We were then in the perverse and ludicrous position of these same planners having to defend the Committee decision against Dr. Sahota's appeal, a position for which they had no stomach and which they have defended so badly to the Insectorate that it's verging on a travesty. The Inspectorate have refused our request for a hearing because Ealing Planning Services did not push for it as they had promised us. The appeal will be decided now by written representations only, without us having a chance to have an informal meeting with the Inspector. The Planning Department's behaviour in this whole case has been unethical, incompetent and illogical. The turnover of case officers is higher than sales assistants at Primark - we're on the third one now for the application next door on the other side! The fact that the Planning Committee voted down the Sahota proposal does not mean that everything was ethical and transparent at the planning stages - not at all, so this does not make everything proper and hunkydory as Dr. Sahota suggests. There's something really rotten going on in this borough when it comes to certain types of planning applications. Decisions are being made that are causing real pain and distress to long-term residents, decisions that flout all the planning rules and which are favourable to unscrupulous developers - and I mean many cases in Ealing and Acton, not necessarily Dr.Sahota's next door to me. 130/140 year old Victorian gems, such as the Peacehaven villa in Acton are being targeted and could be ruined through unsympathetic development or building in back gardens. Garden grabbing was outlawed by this government, or the last one, yet it seems nobody has told Ealing Planning Services. Westminster and K&C are planning to, or now have, banned basement excavation because of the subsidence and misery to neighbours it causes, but seemingly Ealing are all for it and it's not a planning issue anyway, I was told. It comes under building control, Noel Rutherford's province. Interesting! The very areas and architecture that made Ealing "Queen of the Suburbs" are under serious threat. |