Surprisingly, the committee decision to decide the controversial Old Post Office site planning application has been cancelled.

The news came in late yesterday that the applicant had asked the chair to withdraw their application from that committee so they could “consider their position”, the planning application itself has NOT been withdrawn.  This follows on from a blog by Council Leader, Kevin Davis, on Monday morning. As this was the only agenda item, the meeting was cancelled with just 24 hour notice to hundreds of residents planning to attend.

I was very shocked at the last minute cancellation of the meeting.  Only a few weeks earlier hundreds of residents had attended the pre-meeting to express their concerns over the 19 storey development in the heart of the town centre.

I don’t think the Leader of the Council’s blog yesterday was very helpful for several reasons:

• Firstly, he said he’d be asking the committee to refuse, which it could be taken as an instruction to his Conservative colleagues on the committee.  Predetermining or voting on party whip lines are not allowed in planning decisions, so this could have been used in an appeal.
• Secondly, he states ‘The conclusion I have come to is that in policy terms it is very difficult to turn this building down’ – this statement will help the developers going forward to committee.
• and last, but definitely not least, he has again re-stated that this application is not ‘too dense, too high or not enough affordable but quite simply whether it is a spectacular building’.

This statement gives the go ahead to the developer to do a simple re-design, maybe even increase the maximum height and the density, and then planning permission will be easily obtained later in the year.  This concerns me greatly.

I will add that these are my own personal views, and that I have not, and will not, speak directly to the Liberal Democrat members of the Development Control committee.

I’m also very concerned about the increasing arrogance of the Leader of the Council and this Conservative Administration. Statements like ‘I am afraid that I have enough knowledge of that context to know when a new building is appropriate and when it is not’ show little regard to what others think. It is disrespectful to residents to dismiss their concerns on this planning application.

says Councillor Liz Green, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group

The Leader of the Council’s full blog can be seen here.