Secret review was 'despicable'
A review of planning procedures at Forest Heath District Council has led to one councillor accusing officers of subterfuge.
The behaviour of members of the council's planning committee was observed in secret during a meeting in September by consultants paid to undertake an assessment of the authority's planning services.
Members were only made aware of the observation when a report into how procedures could be improved was circulated among Conservative councillors at a private meeting last month.
Cllr Terry Waters, a Conservative planning committee member, said the revelation had caused 'heated debate' among the members present.
"That meeting was one of the most disgusting I have been to," he said.
"To report to us on the night that the planning officers had been allowed to employ this person at great expense, unknown to anybody else, and to find there has been criticism of elected members is despicable."
Officers commissioned a review by Trevor Roberts Associates, which specialises in providing training and advice for planning services. This was aimed at seeing how procedures throughout the department could be improved.
It is understood the council paid 40,000 from a Planning Delivery Grant, donated by central government, to conduct the review and create an electronic manual on planning legislation which could be used to train new members.
It is also understood that the consultants criticised the operation of the planning committee on aspects such as members' relationship with officers and the lack of structured debate.
Cllr Waters said: "We are the elected members and we know what the public wants. We should not be judged that way. I feel very strongly about it."
In a full council meeting on Friday, Cllr Ian Radford, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the district council, also complained that apart from the report showing a 'lack of respect' towards members in an 'apparent subterfuge', no other political party outside the Conservatives had been briefed on what had been written.
It is understood that all parties have now been briefed on its contents.
In a letter written to all planning committee members this week, Cllr Rona Burt, chairman of the committee and member champion for the council's regulatory services, proposed that an informal meeting should be held to iron out differences and discuss issues raised by the report.
"I am anxious that our planning committee presents itself in the best way possible, particularly as we are often in the public eye," she said.
"I am hoping that it will be possible to appreciate what the current negative issues are and to re-establish a more effective and less confrontational way of working."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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