6 September (Part 3) - Bexley Conservatives, a bunch of financial incompetents
The first tip off about the Bellway Homes development on Broadway
reached me last Sunday and it seems likely that the advertisements were put up on Friday.
It seemed odd that I had heard nothing about such plans so I typed ‘Broadway’
into Bexley Council’s planning portal. It didn’t like it, too many
possibilities, did I know the post code? No I didn’t.
I took the lazy way out and called my ward Councillor who is on the
Planning Committee but I at first drew a blank there. Danny Hackett had no information either but had been called only a few minutes earlier by
the
Bexley Times looking for a quote. Danny did not discount the possibility that they may have found out about
Bellway from yesterday’s blog but as a member of the Planning Committee he
wasn’t going to fall into The Bexley Times’ unintentional trap. Planning
Committee members are not permitted to offer an opinion on applications until it meets.
Danny told me he would be looking at planning applications to see if he had missed
anything but an hour later he confirmed he hadn’t.
With no formal planning application on the table Bellway Homes appears to have jumped the gun. More than likely there have been some under the counter
negotiations going on and some unofficial encouragement from our incompetent Council.
Incompetent because when Bexley Council sold the land to Tesco for around £23 million
they turned their back on Labour Party advice and did not insist on an overage clause.
That might have allowed taxpayers to profit when Tesco sold to Sport Direct and
when Sports Direct sold to Bellway Homes.
Bexley Council messed up big time and will be hoping that no one hears about it. Sorry chaps, they have now.