Connect with us

Your Views

LETTER: ‘Banal, ill-informed and downright misguided’ Fenland councillors

The meetings seem rather shambolically run, whilst the contributions of the councillors may best be described as banal, ill-informed, and downright misguided.

Published

on

To introduce myself, I worked within what may be described as the development industry for in excess of 40 years before retiring to Cambridgeshire.

Not, I should stress, within the Fenland area.

Frequently I was required to work with the planning officers and councillors at various local authorities and I have as a consequence attended and observed more planning committee meetings than I care to remember.

Upon reading the two features that you carried in April regarding planning at Fenland Council my professional interest was somewhat piqued.

I have thus viewed all of the Fenland planning committee meetings since with mounting incredulity and no little horror.

After reading your recent feature ‘Turmoil inside Fenland Council over code of conduct planning challenges’, I believe you may be appreciative of my observations.

In all of my years I cannot recall having seen a planning committee which is as unfit for purpose as Fenland’s.

The meetings seem rather shambolically run, whilst the contributions of the councillors may best be described as banal, ill-informed, and downright misguided.

Most concerning though is the decision making of the committee.

LETTER: Here’s the real reason Fenland Council planning hit crisis point

Decisions are frequently irrational, perverse, inconsistent, and showing a disregard for planning policies which borders on contemptuousness, and thus demonstrating similar ignorance of the legal duty for the committee’s decisions to be made in accordance with said policies.

Since the elections in May it is clear that the slimmed down committee, as your latest feature intimates, seems intent on the abandonment of any form of ethically, procedurally, or lawfully correct decision making.

Indeed, the outrageous and highly troubling comments made by Councillor Ian Benney during the August meeting, which were, to summarise; that nobody would legally challenge the committee’s decisions and if they were to the Council Tax payer would pay the costs of this, really gave the game away in that there is not even an artifice of this committee intending to take ‘proper’ decisions.

A number of the councillors seem almost in awe of their more strident colleagues and certainly rarely argue for a more responsible form of decision making.

 From my observations prior to May there were at least a handful of councillors who appeared willing to stand for probity.

I could cite numerous decisions which are typical of this approach from the last few months.

Advertisements
canopyuk.com in-article

The decision which you reference in your feature from the July meeting at Highland View, Benwick Road, Doddington is a prime example having previously been refused by the committee on matters of principle as being outside the village.

That the re-submitted application was granted by the committee with complete disregard for the previous decision and the requirement for consistency in Fenland’s own code of conduct, let alone this being a generally accepted expectation from any reasonable decision-making body, is unbelievable in itself. If one reviews the actual planning merits of the application the decision appears as even more unbelievable.

The site is a field, maybe a half mile or more beyond the village limits and which no reasonable person could describe as being “in the village”. 

You also reference the decision at High Road, Gorefield at August’s meeting. This was, again, a troubling decision for the reasons you set out.

However perhaps a more disturbing example of the committee’s bizarre and irresponsible decision making actually occurred earlier within that meeting.

The application in question concerned a builders yard in what appears as the countryside near to Murrow with some neighbouring residences. Both Fenland’s environmental health office and the county council’s highway office objected to the application.

Turmoil inside Fenland Council over code of conduct planning challenges

Ordinarily such specialist professional advice would carry significant weight with a committee.

Fenland’s however summarily disregarded this in a manner bordering on the casual. It was almost as though they just did not want to brook any argument which would run counter to granting the application.

If I were a resident of Fenland, I should be deeply troubled by the approach my elected representatives were taking to matters of planning and the consequences for the type of area in which one would find oneself living in the future, given the wanton dereliction to protecting the environs which the committee appears to have adopted.

I should also be concerned as to the seeming lack of responsibility exercised by the committee to take correct and unreproachable decisions, and thus the potential for exposing the Council Tax payer to financial liabilities associated with such actions.

Indeed, to take these concerns a stage further given how far wide of the requirements of planning policy and any elementary mark of reasonableness some of the committee’s decisions are and the imbecilic reasoning expressed it would, in my belief, not be unreasonable for one to ask the question; What on earth is happening to Fenland’s planning committee?

I do so hope that my comments are of interest to you.

Yours faithfully

 

Geoffrey

(the letter writer’s full details have been provided to the Editor)

Facebook

Read More

News1 month ago

Ely ‘hit and run’ driver sought after cyclist left with serious injuries

Cyclist injured in crash with a grey car in Lynn Road, Ely

News1 month ago

WATCH: Police retrieve machete and cannabis from Peterborough drug dealer

Offender caught again whilst on bail for first offence

News1 month ago

BREAKING: Cambridgeshire County Council ‘truly sorry’ after it admits liability for 3 fatalities on Guided Busway

Council 'fully acknowledges the serious historic failings'

News1 month ago

WATCH: ‘You got me fair and square’ Wisbech burglar tells police in Peterborough

He was arrested in Peterborough city centre on 26 April

News1 month ago

WATCH: Police raid cannabis ‘factory’ inside Alconbury Weston house

Cannabis arrest followed a tip off from members of the public

News1 month ago

3 things to do while in the queue for an Oasis ticket – and it’s not what you might think

Tongue in cheek post has a serious message

News1 month ago

Cambs transport charity launches scathing attack after losing subsidised bus route to Stagecoach

FACT operated the 68 Wisbech service for a number of years

News1 month ago

Mayor attacks ‘cheap theatre of negativity’ over £48m Peterborough station facelift

Labour hopes Great Northern Hotel will be in future phase of re-development

News1 month ago

Opposition to 8am to 11pm pavement wining and dining in Wisbech by Wetherspoon

In Whittlesey Wetherspoon hope to use Market Place for outdoor drinkers

News1 month ago

Cambridge ‘drug lord’ caught with loaded gun, cash, and £500,000 worth of drugs

Rahman ran a criminal enterprise across Cambridge