| Topic: | Re:Re:Front page article re. area planning committees | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 04/06/11 02:02:00 |
| "NO, this Planning Dept. must never be allowed sole charge of our planning affairs. They have not shown themselves to be either fair or impartial on too many occasions." Elizabeth, this is to put it kindly and I will give you one example of why that is so. When I was a councillor I was lobbied by two very senior officers of the Council in an attempt to sell me the application by Thames Water for the expansion of the Mogden sewage plant. This would have been bad enough were I member of SDC, where the application was considered, but as I was not a member of SDC at that time one wonders why it was considered necessary to try to win my favour (for an application on which Planning was supposed to be neutral, offering recommendations but with no actual interest or involvement of its own). I was, as it happens, Leader of the Community Group on the Council. And two members of the Community Group did sit on SDC. But SDC was and is a quasi-judicial body and as such it would have been unlawful for me to have tried to influence my colleagues to vote in any particular way. So what was the purpose of anybody, let alone senior officers of the Council, trying to lobby me? Maybe Adam could offer us some further insight into how these things work? |