5 November (Part 2) - This anti-democratic Government

Not my words but those of Conservative Councillor June Slaughter (Sidcup) on hearing from Cabinet Member Cameron Smith how neither residents not Councillors will get much of a say over future planning applications. Crazy schemes like the Crook Log Golf Pods will go sailing through because Bexley’s Planning Departments does not always scrutinise schemes with any degree of skill and the Committe can be circumvented.

Cameron did not mince his words; he could reasonably have mentioned Kim Jong Un but stopped a whisker short of doing so. Labour’s tyranny is in a similar ball park.

A big change is coming for Planning, not just in Bexley but throughout England. “After the Prime Minister promised to put more power into the hands of the people he does precisely the opposite. Elected Councillors have been stripped of their planning powers. Small applications, extensions, conversions to HMOs and building up to nine homes can no longer be put before a Planning Committee. If residents have concerns they no longer have an avenue through which to voice them. An enormous change.”

Larger schemes may go to Committee if they meet defined statutory tests but residents will not be able to put forward objections. Larger applications are subject to veto by Sadiq Khan. If there are more than 50 homes or any are to be built on the Green Belt he now has greater powers than before.

“It is entirely undemocratic and unnecessary.” Last year 53 applications went to Committee out of more than 2,000 and sometimes residents objections saw Officer recommendations overturned. “That can no longer happen and is fundamentally undemocratic.”

Cameron claimed that Planning Officers listened to residents which does not really fit recent facts when residents were ignored in favour of an applicant’s unscientific claims. Nevertheless Cameron’s objections are valid. Labour has once again ridden rough-shod over democracy.

The Planning Committee Chairman, Kurtis Kristoforides made similar points in a rather more restrained fashion.

Councillor Slaughter who has lived through the same number of Prime Ministers as I have myself clearly shared my opinion of them. The latest incarnation is perhaps the worst of the lot. How can anyone with a functioning brain support and vote for this so called Labour Party? She hoped this latest example of Labour tyranny will translate into more votes for the Conservatives.

David Leaf, the Council Leader, said that on the very day that these changes came into force,  he received a letter from Government assuring him that it knew that Councils know their communities best.

How many of our rogue developer’s retrospective applications will the Planning Office be able to conceal or grant in future?

 

5 November (Part 1) - Free stuff

Bexley Council has a fund for helping shopping centres and for the current round they have included Abbey Wood, the area sometimes called Abbey Wood Village.

The amount is not huge, £1500, and I understand that it will be spent on a publicity event just before Christmas. Monday 21st December. Precise time as yet undecided but probably from around 11 a.m.

This will not be a market as such though the familiar gazebos will be in evidence. The emphasis will be on free stuff so expect free mince pies, free entertainment for children, advertising material and discount offers from individual traders with the possibility of discounted beer from the Abbey Arms. (Don’t tell the bookies’ clientèle.)

For space reasons the event has to be held on the Greenwich side of Wilton Road. Not to be outdone, Greenwich Council has chipped in with £1,500 too.

 

3 November - Golf Pods bad. Go Ape good

I generally try to file BiB emails at least once a month but sometimes the chore gets deferred. I have no recollection of commenting on this one from six weeks ago.

Will you be doing a piece on the anti Go Ape gaggle that cited many claims around wild life disturbances, clay soil compaction and youths from out of area cutting cats heads off compared to 21,000 people trampling the park to see a few tonnes of explosives launched in the air along with hundreds of tonnes of machinery for the fair.

Certain Councillors appear to have no issues with the display but take issue with Go Ape.

The Go Ape protests seem to be very weird to me and that is not just because their leaders showed themselves to be very unpleasant people. Councillors have been rather divided. Reform UK activists who successfully put paid to the ludicrous Golf Pod idea were against Go Ape too but their offer to assist the gaggle people was rebuffed. If there was one, an official Reform Bexley policy was not revealed.

Incidentally, Councillor Barry Saunders’ (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) comment about feral youths decapitating cats was not something he made up for effect. Whilst I will never be able to find it again, I recall a report of such activities appearing on a local news site.

Whatever the case, the Ape Gaggle didn’t want anything to do with Reform. Their loss. Their GoFundMe for the gullible has stalled at little more than half the target required for the threatened Judicial Review.

A more recent message offers thanks for the IP address report to be found at the foot of every BiB page. Apparently it helped solve the reader’s technical problem, I am not sure how. Perhaps this is the time to repeat that IP addresses are not collected and only the reader sees his own address. It takes just one short line of code.

 

1 November - Reform (Bexley) annihilates Bexley Council’s planning department

It was reported here ten days ago that Reform UK (Bexley) had submitted a 29 page demolition job to Bexley’s planning department on their recommendation to allow a noisy golf practice facility within a few feet of the houses in South Gipsy Road.

The mistakes made by officers of Bexley Council, if that is what they are, some might harbour less generous opinions, were simply incredible. Always accepting the word of the applicant, dismissing independent acoustics reports commissioned by objectors and misleading Planning Committee Members are enough to give credence to those who imagine brown envelopes being exchanged.

I do not envy anyone given the job of answering Reform’s 29 pages of complaint and evidence (PDF) and lucky for them they may not now have to. The applicant has withdrawn his application to blight the lives of everyone living near to the Crook Log Sports Centre.

It would seem that in Bexley, if you need something done, it pays to get its smallest political party on side. Labour raised no objections to the Golf Pods and their Planning Committee Members offered a little support. On the Conservative side, only the Chairman appeared to have serious misgivings.

Now Reform is free to concentrate on their complaints against Cabinet Member Bishop.

Index to Golf Pod blogs.