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| BORE |
The Dame agreed.
She has now changed her mind.....this is why.
Our councillors are putty in the hands of planning(and other officers). Councillors do the bidding of officers, leaving residents unprotected.
There is no better example than the case of Mr Fairholme and his legally challengeable basement.
From today, the Dame declares Open Season on officers who act against the interests of those residents providing their salary and retirement pot.
What potentially it means is that the name of the miscreant officer will be permanently engraved on the internet.
This was never meant to be.
The fault lies entirely with councillors who fail to control, and hold to account, officers, whose motives are questionable at best, and murky at worst.
Well done Dame. Year after year the same planning officers are shown to be responsible for blatant miscarriages of planning laws and/or wrongful action or inaction in relation to certain planning applications for certain applicants. As a consequence RBKC has become a London wide, perhaps even a UK wide, byword for corrupt planning practices.
ReplyDeleteOther departments: such as property deserve similar scrutiny, but planning leads the pack.
Does the picture show the last Director of Planning (Jonathan Bore) or the current Director of Planning (Graham Stallwood)?
DeleteDoes the Dame have a photo of Senior Planning Officer Paul Massey?
No surprise, but the money 'donated' by CapCo to Conservatives through Carlton club and other means has influenced the Tories over Earls Court. Tory residents once again get swindled.
ReplyDeleteThis is an important initiative from the Dame and responds to widespread concern from residents of the Royal Borough.
ReplyDeleteThe case study below of the Fairholme basement is almost impossible to believe. For whatever reason the Director of Planning failed to take action after he was told in writing in the summer that Fairholme was building an illegal basement. And then, in the bowels of the planning department, Senior Planning Officer Massey was reaching a private arrangement with Mr Fairholmes "consultant" from Estate Agent Savills. And Massey then had the balls to write a letter on Council notepaper recommending approval of an illegal basement.
What on earth is going on??
Is this information, written in straightforward English, clear enough for dim Tim Putin Coleridge (Cabinet Member for Planning) to understand? If not he should ask his three year old grandson to explain.
Cllr Paget-Brown needs to get a grip of his organisation. Councillors and Officers.
We residents owe a debt of gratitude to the Dame.
ReplyDeleteThe photo is Jonathan Bore, a man with a remarkable gift for telling his audience exactly what they wanted to hear, then leaving the room only to succumb to total amnesia.
ReplyDeleteThe Fairholme scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg - no pun intended. Corruption in the planning department is rife and has been for decades. Look beyond the obvious.
If an officer recommended an illegal basement is this corruption in public office?
ReplyDeleteNot typically one for conspiracy theories, I have sadly seen too much at this point and must reluctantly agree there is a serious problem with the Planning Department. I hate to use the "c" word loosely. But when I first encountered what was an obviously extreme bias to interpret planning to the benefit of a developer, I realized that bad things were going on. Example after example shows an endemic problem, so deeply rooted it has become accepted practice. If only there were a way to encourage whistle-blowing from within, with total anonymity or amnesty. Residents have suffered too much. It is time for it to stop.
ReplyDeleteGo for it! But isn't "shame" a concept as alien to the Rotten Borough's power shower as "democracy" and "public service"?
ReplyDeleteWELL DONE.... GO FOR IT DAME. You have our wholehearted support...
ReplyDeleteMarvellous job Dame. Corruption is notoriously difficult to prove, and we can be certain tracks will have been meticulously covered. But I must say Stallwood's turning of a blind eye to the wrong doing probably is a more easily established case of "Misconduct in Public Office": which carries both the risk of imprisonment and personal financial liability.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree entirely with the intention of our dear Dame's latest campaign, the premise is incorrect. Why support the current unbalanced situation whereby Councillors are the subjects of officers?
ReplyDeleteIf officers are misbehaving (IF) it is entirely down to Cabinet Members, the chair and vice-chair of Planning, and the Leader.
Despite public perception the Council is not a corporation, it is a public body supposedly run by elected members, so they work for us, not the other way round.
Anon 10.16 is correct. RBKC will never give amnesty to disgusted officers spilling the beans. The reality is that councillors believe their primary duty is to protect the reputation of the Horton Street dunghill at any cost.
ReplyDeleteThe rot has spread so far, councillors no longer have a concept residents' rights. As a matter of course our elected members simply ignore bad practice, dishonesty and the law.
Alison Flight is one to keep your eye on dame . The big thumbs up to Capco says it all - allegedly!
ReplyDeleteTake them to court !
ReplyDeleteYes 13.37, not to mention the kiss of betrayal from AF to one of the planning consultants after the CapCo victory, that dozens saw and complained about. Apparently he was 'an old friend'. Of course he was.
ReplyDeleteFor many years a certain team leader north has quietly presided over endless highly questionable planning consents. Nothing apparently stirs him to action. No resident of ordinary means is assisted. No officer is sacked.
ReplyDeleteAt one point he was shunted sideways, but is now back in the thick of it. Like a spider, or is it a monkey? Seeing no evil, hearing no evil, speaking no evil. Like his former boss, he always tells the public what it wants to hear and then carries on as usual. One to watch - allegedly.