sashka
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Re:South Downs Road development - 2007/07/16 23:37
I am afraid I do not have any sympathy for the planning department at all. As I understand it , this is not the first time that the negative views of a statutory consultee have failed to make it into a Planning report, but inaccurate information is used instead. In 2004, when 3 Albion St houses were being considered, the recommendation for refusal by the Highway Athority was omitted from a report, and another document that made no view was used instead. Sound familiar? The correct view was only supplied when a local resident (familiar again?) found the real comments recommending refusal in a file sleeve that said 'confidential not for public view'. Officers denied they were wrong, and residents eventually had to make a complaint to the Ombudsman, who agreed that the Council had been guilty of Administrative Fault. The Council however did not investigate how it happened, and it seems have done nothing to correct their failure to get consultations done properly . The Planning Department made a very large profit in extra payments by getting applications processed within fixed time frames (but to what standard?), so it is about time they started explaining why they find it so difficult to process big applications and pay for additional help, but will harass individuals in Lewes over pieces of trellis, and some plastic window frames.(actual examples of the Council pursuing specific planning 'breaches') Why aren't the 'Friends of Lewes' spotting the kind of gross
errors that individual Lewes residents are finding so easily?
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