Immediately after the planning committee meeting back in December, we got in touch with Bill Cash to explore any options we might have had. Bill then contacted Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and the chap responsible for the new(ish) Communities Act which will require more involvement of local communities in making planning decisions.
We optimistically thought that the Secretary of State might be able to help in some way. But he can't. At the end of the post is a copy of a letter received from one of his ministers, the Rt. Hon Greg Clark MP, no less. The only action left to us is to take up the matter through the Courts which would, of course, require the involvement of solicitors not to mention time and money. If anyone out there wants to do that then do let us know and we'll help out with the publicity.
This does not mean the end of the road for The Blog, however. We have another post in preparation about the lessons we have learned over the past eighteen months about democracy, local politics, common decency and a multitude of other points. Don't miss it!
A very big thank you from the Rough Close community to the blogger.......it is a medium that no doubt we will all eventually come to get used to but having a guiding hand preparing all the information has been invaluable.
ReplyDeleteWith the plaudits now said let us not forget how badly we have been served by the Borough Council in this process,the last decision surely being highly "questionable" on what has gone on behind the scenes.We know now that SBC and particularly Andy Harp (hopefully soon ex councillor)can not be trusted and need to be treated with the appropriate contempt.
And the Davis developers ? Let us hope (and pray) that his houses remain unsold and that is hopefully enormous developer debts bring him down to the level he deserves.Fate has a habit of biting back,lets hope that it bites Davis in the most painful places !!!
Well done blogger.
Much appreciation and thanks for your hard work, keeping us informed with the blog updates. The politicians involved have shown their true worth or rather lack of, has elected representatives of the community! As you say, John, a learning experience. With influences of Shirley Wheat and Andrew Harp ensuring that the result was in the Developers interests, and ignoring the strong local opposition, one can only conclude that true democracy is dead.
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