‘Appalling Behaviour’ v. ‘I Stand By My Comment’ – Reactions to Ash Planning Meeting

Published on: 26 Sep, 2013
Updated on: 29 Sep, 2013

With the dust barely settled, key players gave their reaction to Tuesday night’s stormy meeting that passed a planning application for 400 new homes in Ash.

Council Leader Stephen Mansbridge said: “The planning decision that was made last night means that we will have a piece of development which I personally, and I think a lot of people locally, believe is simply in the wrong place.

“I am not at all against development per se. But I do believe that if you build something on ground that people know is very boggy marshland, the water has to go somewhere. The outline plans that have been put in place frankly do not seem to me to be credible.

“My criticism of the council’s planning service was about the way in which the application was dealt with. There were in fact, quite simply, too many unanswered questions, and I highlighted those during the meeting. It was approved. Will those questions be answered? I am not sure. I think that they have to be answered and people have to feel that this is a secure application, now an approved application, as it goes forward. There are a number of other stages to go through, so I hope that as we look at those stages we will see improvements.

“Regarding the behaviour of Cllr Goodwin. It was absolutely appalling and I have little to say about it other than we, the Conservative Group, are considering our options. If he has any sense of decency he will apologise.”

The leader of the Lib Dem Group, Cllr David Goodwin said: “Firstly, the matter should never have been referred to a full council meeting. Planning applications are almost always better dealt with by the planning committee where, for instance, council officers are able to respond fully.

“I believe, as I said, that Cllrs Spooner and Furniss referred the matter to a full council meeting to allow them to showboat to the public instead of taking a responsible attitude to what was an important decision involving council tax payers money.

“The accusation by Stephen Mansbridge, levelled at the planning department, that their report was substandard, was completely out of order and against the council’s written protocol. It is unfair to criticise council officers publicly because they cannot answer back.

“It made me very angry to see the planning officers mistreated that way.

“When I said that the planning officers might not have been able to reach Cllr Mansbridge because he might have been in the pub I was only alluding to behaviour of his that has been reported and is a matter of record i.e. his drink-driving conviction.

“I stand by what I said, in fact two Tory councillors, came up to me afterwards to congratulate me. They too regretted that the application had been referred to a full meeting and did not agree with Cllr Mansbridge’s behaviour. They had been given no prior knowledge that he was going to criticise the council’s own planning department in the way that he did.

“All in all, I felt it was a terrible meeting, the worst council meeting I have ever attended. We have serious and difficult decisions to make about planning in this borough and it is not right that they are taken in the way they were last night.”

Cllr Paul Spooner (Con Ash South & Tongham), the ward councillor who moved the motion to refuse the application, said: “I am very disappointed by the result and hopefully my position in relation to this plan was clear yesterday when I moved refusal.

“As for Cllr Goodwin,  his behaviour was a total disgrace. Since the meeting I have had more messages from residents relating to his outrageous behaviour than the key issue of the planning application.”

Graham Eyre, the Secretary of Ash Residents’ Association wrote: “Many of the hundreds of residents attending a council meeting for the first time will have been surprised at the level of debate, ranging from the disingenuous and banal to the intelligent and fair. Unfortunately for Ash, Tongham and Ash Green, there were more councillors engaging in the former than the later.

“GBC Planning and Legal Services frightened the more timid councillors with dire predictions of what would happen if the application wasn’t approved.

“We have lost a battle, we still intend to win the war.

The Lib Dem Group also issued a press release:

Council Leader Mansbridge responded saying: “We by no means have a Local Plan that is as old as some others councils’ Local Plans. Some of them date back into the 1990s.

“What has made the significant change is not the age of the Local Plan it is actually the NPPF [National Planning Policy Framework] which has come in and completely changed the ball game.

“We have responded to that and under my leadership, in my administration the lead councillor for this, Monika Juneja, has moved as quickly as she can to get these documents fit for purpose and to get them out. They have now all, prettify much, gone out, ready for the consultation which starts in October.

“This is a long process and it has to be a long process to do it properly and engage with people properly. I don’t accept the Lib Dem Group’s comments. I think they are sniping from the sidelines. It was interesting to note that they largely voted on political lines last night which is against the spirit of a planning item.”

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See also:

As Insults Fly, Council Approves Plan For 400 New Houses in Ash

Ash Planning Decision – How the Councillors Voted – Includes Absentees

The Dragon Says: A Day of Shame For Guildford

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