Councillors clash over controversial planning application in Dudley
Councillors have clashed over claims of political interference in a controversial planning application which is opposed by hundreds of people.
Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley was accused of intervening in a planning application for houses which was brought back for a decision – after the plan had already been approved.
The row came after Dudley's planning committee agreed an application for four houses on land to the rear of Marlborough Gardens, in Wordsley.
The amended plans were resubmitted after the committee’s chair, Councillor Andrea Goddard, used delegated powers to grant permission in April.
Councillor Asif Ahmed said the new application shouldn’t have come to the committee because the previous decision had been correct.
Referring to a claim that council leader Councillor Harley sent a ‘stern email’ to planning officers, he said: “In my time on the committee I have never seen or heard anything like that before.
“It should be solely for the committee to make a decision; there should not be any perceived undue influence coming from anybody at all especially if that is the leader of the council because that automatically says to me there is something not quite right here.
“Maybe there is politics involved. I can’t comment on that but that’s the impression I’m getting from all of this and what I’m seeing and hearing. I have never seen a chair’s decision being undermined like this before.
“This is a straight forward planning application that has been made difficult because somebody from what it seems here – and maybe the leader with his stern email – sent because he was not happy with the way things were going.
“Based solely on planning from what I see here before me today, absolutely nothing wrong with the decision made previously.”
The committee heard ward councillors and Mike Wood MP had supported 66 formal letters of objections from residents, accompanied by a petition with 127 signatures.
Residents said the scheme to demolish existing garages to make way for four homes was an over-development of the site and would add to traffic congestion on nearby roads.
Objectors also claimed the plans would deny established rights of way.
Local resident David Blood said police concerns about the scheme hadn’t been published until Cllr Harley sent his email to planning officers.
The application was endorsed by the committee by five votes to three after chairwoman Cllr Goddard withdrew from the meeting.
Speaking after the decision Councillor Harley strongly rebuked Cllr Ahmed’s claims. He said: “I don’t just have my own ward to represent when people come to me with issues. Unfortunately as leader of the council people from all 24 wards write to me when they feel they are getting nowhere.
“And some issues you take up because you think it is so unfair and in this instance residents wrote to me and because I did think it was unfair, I provided that assistance.
“If you have planning officers trying to build a case in support of a planning application and you also have residents trying to build a case against that application, then all the evidence should be fair.
“As leader of the council my job is to see that fair play is given to all sides.”
He continued: “And if a planning team hasn’t published objections by members of the public, councillors, the MP or by the emergency services then that is not right.
“If planning officers haven’t published comments from the emergency service then of course it is quite right that I say to the planning department, ‘Get your finger out , this is the right way to do it, don’t suppress that evidence, make sure it is published’.”
