A “summer of secrecy” could be about to prevent planning decisions getting the scrutiny they deserve, warn Croydon’s Conservative councillors.
Croydon’s failing Labour council has recently cancelled a spate of planning committee meetings, creating a backlog of applications for decision.
Given Labour’s famed lack of transparency when it comes to decision making, residents fear that this could lead to councillors being asked to make as many as eight decisions in one meeting. This will curtail time for discussion and rob crucial items of the scrutiny they deserve.
Residents also fear that other mistakes are being made as Labour continues to lose their grip on council business. Despite correctly referring an application to committee, a residents’ association discovered that the decision had been made by officers under delegated business. This is a breach of the council’s often-neglected constitution.
There are also significant fears that, due to a lack of committee meetings, the council will be vulnerable to action from developers, who can now appeal to inspectors as a result of non-determination.
In an open letter to Cllr Oliver Lewis, the Labour politician who oversees the borough’s planning system, Croydon Conservatives have urgently asked:
- Why planning committee has not met for ten weeks and why meetings continue to be cancelled
- Labour to commit to not overload forthcoming meetings. A maximum of four items should be on the agenda
- To confirm how many applications which were referred to committee have already been decided by officers
- Whether the council is in danger of action from developers over non-determination. If so, what are the financial implications of this risk?
Cllr Gareth Streeter, Conservative spokesperson for Planning and Regeneration says:
“When planning committee meetings are overloaded with applications for decision, residents have to wait for hours on end. In the past, Conservative councillors have even been discouraged from asking questions because of the lateness of the hour. Sometimes, residents sit patiently for six hours, only to discover that their item gets pulled at the last minute because there isn’t time to hear it. This simply isn’t fair.
“Given the unexplained cancellation of so many meetings recently, residents will fear that Labour are deliberately planning to overload future meetings in order to reduce scrutiny and hope that items get nodded through. At a time when public confidence in the council has evaporated because of Labour’s long-term mismanagement, the political leadership of the council should be doing everything in its power to ensure that all decision making is as transparent as possible.
“As a result, Conservative councillors will not support meetings which attempt to discuss more than four items in one sitting. It’s not fair on residents. But we will support a larger number of shorter meetings to ensure that all decisions get the scrutiny they deserve. It is now up to Labour to decide whether they will work with us constructively or continue to ignore the fears of the public.”
