It seems our dysfunctional Council has got itself into another legal planning tangle.
This time over the application for the new Queen Elizabeth High School in Johnstown Carmarthen (W/20936). As a school, this is of course an application in which Carmarthenshire County Council has "an interest either as applicant/agent, or in terms of land or property ownership." The original planning Conditions were not followed, so a retrospective application was submitted to incorporate the fact that the new playing field is 1.4m high and overlooking peoples homes as well as being built on rubble from the old school as well as Japanese Knotweed. The new fence, at 4m high also breaches planning conditions. A link to the full report is here. There were 19 objections, including statements that there was a distinct lack of either consideration or consultation with residents. This is of course commonplace with council schemes.
The interesting thing is, despite the Head of Planning recommending it for approval (of course), The planning committee refused it. (Minutes of decision here)I should imagine that the planning solicitor went into overdrive trying to subdue the rebellious committee.
What a predicament!
The council could now try and reach a compromise with itself to avoid embarrassment (ie tell the committee to go away and come back with a better decision!) or perhaps issue enforcement action on itself, appeal against the decision by it's own committee or maybe even take themselves to court! One thing is sure, there will be plenty of overtime available in that ever busy Legal department!
There is an interesting article about this at Timesonline Law central site, Weird Cases-Suing Yourself
Council Get Away With an Apology
Another story came to my attention, this time it was about a developer of a golf course in Bynea, Carmarthenshire who was found guilty and fined £2500 for destroying rare vole habitat. The point being that planning permission for a golf course is relatively easy to get because the associated landscaping gives the council somewhere to dump it's waste (hopefully not toxic). This was also the case here, and I can understand the developers annoyance;
'The court was also told that earlier this year Carmarthenshire council had deposited excavated material on his land and removed his boundary fence, although the Local Authority had apologised, Mr Shelley was upset that there was 'one rule for him and another rule for different people"
He's so right!
More Than Meets the Eye
I was considering the application by Draeth developments for an opencast coal mine in Pentremawr in the Gwendraeth Valley. As Carmarthenshire County Council owns most of the land, and as the developer has already stumped up £50k in planning fees and who knows what other costs associated with such an application, there have bound to have been extensive 'pre-application' discussions with the planning department.
It therefore seems likely to go ahead. I would suggest to the residents opposed to the mine to get the strangely powerful Leader, Councillor Meryl Gravell, on their side, so that should the proposal be recommended for approval (like the Coedbach Biomass plant in Trimsaran), she can wave her magic wand and get a complete U-turn and make sure it's turned down.
Another Blow to Local Newspapers
Briefly, it seems that struggling local papers may be soon struck another blow. a consultation in England is underway regarding the ending of the statotory advertising of planning applications in the local papers. The same would follow in wales I presume. Not only would this mean loss of important revenue to the papers but another nail in the coffin of democracy over planning consultations.
Carmarthenshire Council TV
As this now seems to be a dead cert, I thought I'd put a link to a recent post by one of the critics of Kent Council TV. Could this be what we've got to look forward to?!
And there's this from Timesonline.
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