|
|
 |
| |
Well done to Brian for exposing planning murk
• I AM really glad Councillor Brian Woodrow fought as bravely as he did and exposed those who betrayed the public’s interest (A sinister obsession in the Town Hall, Dec 14).
The anger over the way our planning department was run in the past few years is now borough wide. The terrible consequences of the unwise planning decisions (backed eagerly by the Executive under Labour) will affect residents forever.
Councillors Woodrow and Roy Shaw and former Councillor Gerry Harrison will be remembered as the honest voices among Labour leaders with respect to planning matters.
Those are the men who use their experience in evaluating planning applications whenever they were called to do so and were brave enough to speak up their mind when they disagreed.
Shaw and Harrison spoke up against the Dalby Street planning application, for example, but their sensible advice was not heeded by Town Hall officials.
VICKY BROWN
Mansfield Road, NW1
• I AM shocked to read about all the shenanigans that have been going on at the Town Hall over King’s Cross, but I am not surprised (A sinister obsession in the Town Hall).
Elsewhere in the borough we hear about similar behaviour whereby private developers were given unreasonable concessions by Town Hall officials.
The Talacre affair, which recently made the headlines, is one nasty example. It is still unresolved.
A JAMES
North Gower Street, NW1
• THOUGH I have neither time nor sufficient knowledge to evaluate your long report on the case of Councillor Brian Woodrow versus Town Hall, I recognise important elements from my own experience.
The landlord of our block of flats in Frognal Estate is eager to build extra floors above our existing floors.
None of the residents want this addition which – it so happens – might dangerously weaken the structure of our existing blocks built over a railway tunnel.
During the process of three repeated applications by our landlord, Camden’s Planning department was not only unhelpful to us but they did their best to ignore our objections.
My protests about Camden’s planning behaviour was partly ignored, partly defended by what could be regarded as insults to our communal intelligence.
Camden’s planning officer recommended the application and it was granted on December 7.
Perhaps councillors on the planning committee did not argue the planning officer’s recommendation as they did not wish to be harrassed as evidently Cllr Woodrow was?
You report that “Cllr Woodrow, in his defence, had accused former senior officers of pandering to big business over planning issues”.
In my experience, Camden’s planning department puts business above the health and safety of ordinary residents.
AGNES KORY
Bela Bartok Centre for Musicianship
Finchley Road, NW3
• THANKS for Richard Osley’s lucid and extensive report on the vindication of Councillor Brian Woodrow and for your succinct editorial (Slay the monster, Dec 14).
You are, of course, absolutely right that the Standards Board for England, which had Cllr Woodrow on the rack for two years, has proved a grotesque monster and needs to be struck down.
It can have been no comfort to Cllr Woodrow (a Labour councillor for Holborn, whom I have never met) knowing that he was the victim of a creation of the Labour Party’s blundering heffalump, John Prescott.
Considering its provenance it is not too surprising that the Board has proved a fatuous disaster, and an instrument of torture for conscientious local councillors of all political persuasions.
The Standards Board has proved a vehicle for seeking political advantage rather than for upholding high standards in public life. It subjects councillors to torturous quasi-legal proceedings without the safeguards of proper legal process.
There is no recourse to appeal, except to judicial review or the High Court. Councillors cannot talk about complaints against them, but the press is free to do so with impunity.
There is no source of money to contest the case, and no recompense for costs or damage to your reputation when you are found innocent. I understand Cllr Woodrow, who was ousted by his own Labour colleagues as Camden’s planning chairman, may be landed with a bill of £30,000 for the expenses he incurred defending his good name against accusations levelled against him by over-zealous council officers.
Yet of 10,000 complaints about councillors in three years, only seven per cent revealed any breach of the code of conduct. Barely three per cent are referred for any disciplinary action – and meanwhile approaching £12 million has been wasted.
More insidiously, time and again the threat of Standards Board proceedings is used to silence councillors and to prevent them properly representing those who have elected them. Councillors should be subject to the same checks and balances as MPs, with final accountability at the ballot box, not before some dilatory sort of banana republic court martial.
I am glad to say that it is official Liberal Democrat policy that the Standards Board for England be abolished.
ROBIN YOUNG
Holborn Liberal Democrats
Bedford Court Mansions
Bedford Avenue, WC1
• YOUR article ‘A sinister obsession in the Town Hall’ makes for grim reading.
It justifies quite clearly the loss of trust ordinary people now have about planning officials at Town Hall.
These unelected members of Camden staff are paid for by the tax payers to protect the public’s interest. What they get up to when allowed to “run the show” is quite outrageous. This must stop.
Cllr Brian Woodrow was entitled, in my view, to search for the truth about all the details concerning the King’s Cross planning application. That was his job and he apparently tried to discharge his responsibilities the way we, the voting public, would expect him to.
It is a sad day when unelected members of staff seem to have more power than those we elected to represent us.
It also explains how the Dalby Street scandal came about in our own neighbourhood whereby residents now have to fight the council to save our local park from the unwelcome encroachment by a private developer.
All I hope now is that King’s Cross has a successful appeal in Court and that the Dalby Street road closure will either be turned down outright or be the subject of an inquiry.
B KURT
Grafton Terrace,
NW5
|
 |
|
|
|
