In my last post I told the sorry tale of the Planning Committee as they ignored the advice of their planning officers and listened instead to one of their own committee, Cllr Piper, slagging off 12 interrelated planning applications:
Under the old leadership, of course, Piper also chaired the licensing committee despite walking into a pub and shouting a nazi-related slogan at two customers! Hopefully, the new leadership has taken note! (Coming soon on The Skidder: "Yvonne - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly!")
I have now been able to study the order for costs made against the Council and which we, as taxpayers, will now have to pay. The Planning Inspectorate was absolutely damning about this - out of control - authority!
Costs do not "follow the event" in planning cases unlike most civil hearings. Costs may be awarded "where a party has behaved unreasonably and the unreasonable behaviour has directly caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expenses in the appeal process."
The comrades are entitled to take into account objections but must have objective evidence (not apparently supplied by Piper) before overruling professional planning officers.
If I may digress a moment, I regularly ask councillors attending meetings about items of the agenda. Countless times I have been met with a response such as "No idea - I haven't read the papers." Don't forget that the vast majority of this lot get "special responsibility payments" on top of their basic allowance to sit on committees etc. Yes, many are as thick as mince and lazy but is it too much to ask for them to read stuff BEFORE meetings? I should add, of course, that this is another hangover from the Cooper/Eling years when these unthinking morons were simply prepared to do as they were told by the Dictatorship and just had to follow the voting pattern given to them....
The Inspector said that Councillors could reject the advice of their officers "provided that a case could be made for the contrary view."
Although the 12 applications were interrelated this particular bunch also made the fatal mistake of deciding one case and applying it to all the others. This laziness by the Committee members meant that the refusal was in absolutely identical terms for 10 of the 12 rejections!
We have seen a million times that Jan Britton has presided over astonishing incompetence during his tenure as the joke "Chief Executive" (although, hopefully, the new leader will give early consideration to his future.) Britton ordered staff in 2012 to ignore their own professional judgement and their consciences and blindly submit to the will of the elected members. No wonder disaster ensued!
The Planning Inspector pointed out that once the matter proceeds to appeal it is for THE COUNCIL to "provide evidence to substantiate each reason for refusal". But once the Committee had made the decision and in accordance with the Britton doctrine the bent paid service could no longer be bothered with these cases. The costs decision states "the appeal evidence submitted by the Council justifying its decisions is extremely limited and lacks detail...." Reading between the lines of the decision it appears that Britton's bone-idle crew did no work on this but simply told the Inspector that the Councillor's had relied on their "local knowledge"! (This in itself is a joke as some of the comrades are so parochial they don't know anywhere not in their own ward!)
The judgement of the Committee "needs to be supported by evidence to support each reason", said the Inspector and continued, "such evidence has NOT been produced by the Council." She continued, "in failing to provide sufficient evidence to justify its decisions, it [the Council] has behaved unreasonably and this behaviour has led to unnecessary expense during the appeal process. For this reason....FULL awards of costs are justified."
Another display of appalling lack of professionalism from Jan Britton's enfeebled service!
The costs are to be calculated and agreed if possible. The Councillors don't have to pay them - you and I do! Great isn't it in Sadders?
The 12:
Piper (who presented the objections to his own committee); Elaine Costigan (see below); Luke Giles; Rajbir Singh; Susan Eaves; Paul Sanders; Susan Downing; Julie Webb; Jackie Taylor; Pam Hughes; Roger Horton & Keith Davies (the latter pair are no longer on the Council).
La Reine Est Mort?
It astonishes me that folk equate the constant flapping of the mouth with diligence and/or expertise. One thinks of serial done-nothings like Jerry "Jeremy" Corbyn and Jess Phillips. And locally, of course, the leader of the pack in the gobsh*te stakes, Queen "Inane Elaine" Costigan.
"Inane" has been putting out tweets suggesting that her career on the Council's Cabinet (ROFLMAO) is coming to an end. But some deluded individuals tell me, "Oh but Elaine works so hard." She may do to further her own position but, as above, where is the empirical evidence to support this subjective drivel? Not in her attendance at the Planning Committee that's for sure (although she made certain she was there for "that" infamous meeting where her friends at KTC Edibles had their retrospective application approved!)
In the municipal year, 2018/19 Costigan was absent for the April, June, July, September, November, January, February and March meetings. She attended in August, September, October and December.
Thus the supposed stakhanovite managed to turn up for just 33% of these very important meetings for 100% of her special responsibility payment for being on the Committee. Take note Wednesbury folk before you try and p*ss down my leg and tell me it's raining!
And Finally..
Does anyone know anything about an allegation that Jan Britton's ex-special friend (formerly) at Waterfall Lane was allowed to use a SMBC vehicle when her partner's was in the garage?
Who was the person who borrowed a car from Waterfall Lane for "work purposes" but returned it with a child's car seat still in the back?
Who was the employee in taxi licensing who sent a DBS check to the wrong person?
Who runs the "Warley Labour Party" Facebook Page?
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