Domestic arrangements preclude any significant news reporting on Fridays
(Mondays too) so by the time this is published, everyone who is interested will
know that Go Ape has been allowed to move into Danson Park.
A proper report should appear here tomorrow but I will put it on the record now
that no member of the press was present at the meeting (the Chairman asked them to identify
themselves) and the Council staff were too lazy to assemble the tiered seating. As a result few people could see
every Councillor and count the number of hands raised For and Against. Those
sitting near to me believed that Go Ape had been rejected and were staggered to
hear the Committee Chairman announce that it had been approved.
During today I have been in correspondence with seven Councillors and former
Councillors to try to establish exactly who voted and how. You’d think that
would be easy but there were conflicting reports on Facebook and Democratic
Services claimed that they had not kept a voting record. Maybe they have the memory
capabilities of a goldfish, or perhaps they are simply very unhelpful people,
With no journalist present,
what you may have read in the national press today is the result of hearsay and gossip
although it is almost certainly true. But more of that another day.
Before
Go Ape was debated, another Planning Application took up almost 90 minutes.
Several members of the public complained loudly about the Chairman’s lack of
urgency that allowed things to drift on that long.
An Application to build on disused tennis courts had been before the Committee before and this was a modified scheme
to satisfy previous misgivings; except that it didn’t.
The old tennis courts are in Old Manor Way and adjacent to
one
of the first parks proposed for disposal and development by Bexley Council.
Long before the coming of BexleyCo. It
never happened due to covenants,
tunnels and mine shafts.
This time the plan was to build twelve houses in two blocks on
the
old tennis courts. None affordable of course. The Council claimed ownership
and first tried to sell the courts eleven years ago.
Two local residents made their objections known but it was Councillor Howard
Jackson (Conservative, Barnehurst) who probably made the most impact. The site approach is on a steep
gradient via a very narrow railway arch on a blind corner. Inaccessible to HGVs
and speeding was known to be an issue. Minor scrapes were said to be common with serious accidents
occurring every eight months approximately.
This was something taken up by a number of Councillors, notably Larry Ferguson
(Labour, Thamesmead East) and it was the traffic issues that ultimately caused
the Application to be rejected. New Councillor Thomas Clapperton (Conservative,
West Heath) was very much on the ball too and asked a number of probing questions about the validity of
several items of available data.
This seemed to upset the Chairman who feared a costly appeal. I found it
slightly disturbing, and it is the main reason for reporting a relatively minor
Application, that the Chairman said he would ask every Councillor to
justify a negative decision. This he duly did and was not easily satisfied.
Maybe it is a precaution he believes to be necessary or it may be a legal
requirement but either way it pressures Councillors towards approving
Applications about which they may not be entirely happy.
Is it a small scale assault on democracy? Fortunately both Councillors Ferguson and Clapperton were not easily subdued.