A BITTER war of words is continuing between the two main political groupings on Warrington Borough Council, which each side blaming the other for the illegal destruction of planning records.
Local Government Ombudsman Anne Seex has issued a stinging criticism of the authority over the destruction of the records which she describes as “a significant and very serious failure of corporate governance” and “an 
extraordinary and inexcusable act of maladministration.”
Her investigation showed a senior planning officer – who has since left the authority – destroyed planning records prior to 1996, despite the fact the council had a statutory duty to keep them.
The controlling Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition has claimed the documents were destroyed when Labour controlled the council.
But Labour has accused the controlling group of attempting a “political stunt” in the run up to Thursday’s council elections.
But council leader Ian Marks said: “This is no stunt. For Warrington Borough Council to be described as having suffered ‘a significant and very serious failure of corporate governance’, and that ‘the destruction of the Council’s statutory records was an extraordinary and inexcusable act 
of maladministration’, is a very serious matter.
“This action by a trusted senior planning officer must have been planned. The report says ‘It must have involved a considerable administrative effort and a number of staff’.
“It is possible that the illegal act of destroying the archive of planning records contrary to planning law was simply an isolated act of incompetence by a senior officer. Nevertheless the destruction of records raises speculation about other possible reasons for their removal which brings the council into serious disrepute.
“The timing of the report, and its release to the press immediately prior to an election, was an entirely independent decision by the Ombudsman. Once the report was published, we had no option but to comment.”
Cllr Marks said Labour were attempting to created a smoke-screen to hide their failure to manage the council properly.
Deputy council leader Keith Bland added: “The council’s internal audit team has already been asked to undertake 
the investigation and they started the process promptly last Thursday. I would expect the council’s monitoring officer to consider preparing a report as part of any governance response, depending on the conclusions of the audit investigation. All planning records are now kept in digital form but internal audit will check and confirm that the way we now keep planning records is up to the required standard.”
The Labour group has called for an independent inquiry into the issues raised by the Ombudsman’s report.
They firmly believe the right and responsible way forward is to have an authoritative and wide-ranging investigation under the control of the council’s governance committee in an open and transparent way.
A Labour statement says: “It has emerged from executive officers at Warrington Borough Council that the planning documents were believed to have been destroyed in mid-2006. This leaves the ‘ConDems’ with extremely red faces, since they were in control of the administration at this point.
Labour Group leader Terry O’Neill said: “All along, the Labour Group have pressed for an independent inquiry into the Ombudsman’s report. The report covered complaints over planning issues covering a period of more than 12 years. That is why we believe that the right and responsible way to address the report is through an open and transparent inquiry, under the control of the council’s governance Committee.
“What we are witnessing now is the statement from the Lib Dem/Tory hierarchy unravelling before our eyes. As usual, they have jumped in and made ridiculous and unfounded accusations without establishing any of the facts, purely for their own short-term political gain. It now appears that the destruction of planning documents occurred whilst they were in charge of this council. The Labour Group looks forward to an apology – in the circumstances, anything less is simply not acceptable.”
Pictured (from the top) Ian Marks, Keith Bland, Terry O’Neill.
Planning row rages on
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
11 Comments
Now children, time to put your toys away and act like adults, NOT name calling children. It’s hardly surprising that people are turned off by politics. Perhaps the AV vote should be for “NO more councillors”.
Whenever anything goes wrong or unpopular decisions are taken at WBC then it’s always “un-named council officers” who are said to be responsible. If our elected representatives don’t have the authority to enforce the decisions they were elected to take onto our faceless bureaucrats, and won’t take personal responsibility for disasters in the departments they have given themselves the grandiose titles of “Executive Member in charge of….”, then I have to wonder – what exactly are they for?????
Completely agree with you Silver Surfer 🙂 I’m rather shocked that ‘someone’ has destroyed all the old planning records but I’m sick to death of constantly reading and hearing about the childish way the leaders are behaving yet again. Yes they need to find out why, when and who did it but pathetic tittle tattle, name calling and finger pointing is something that most adults grew out of in their childhood. In the report Labour say that the documents are thought to have been destroyed in 2006 but if you check the councils planning website there are a lot of decision made between 1974 and 1996 which have a registration date of 2001 / 2002 etc and no documents are available (some do however seem to have the correct registration date but still no documents). Was 2001 around the time when the online electronic searchable planning database started ? If so my guess would be that a decision was made at some stage to only put the outcome of the much older planning matters on the web rather than scanning it all and maybe as a few years had passed and no-one ever wanted to refer to them then the planning officer and his office workers had a clear out 🙂 Or maybe they were stored elsewhere and someone else threw them… or maybe they ‘thought’ they had all been put on the database and accidentally threw them… or maybe most people dont really care anyway and it will not alter their vote tomorrow either way as after all most would have just been shop signs, peoples little extensions and other stuff that no-one cares about now 😉 As for the bigger planning applications well that is a different matter all together and surely they should have had more than one copy anyway stored in seperate locations in the event of a fire for example. I hope they have at least two backup copies of all the electronic ones though as they are so much easier to ‘lose’…….. I’m rambling again just for the sake of it… a bit like our party current leaders ha ha
I completely agree with you too Inky…. it’s very easy to blame someone else especially the real workers or people who have since left (your post wasn’t there when I started slowly rambling). A thought has just occurred to me though.. surely they should have had copies of the older ones on microfilm like other councils and libraries do ??
Given the fact that chaos has and does rule in WBC, they have probably put them somewhere and forgotten where. No-one knows anything any more with all the changes and redundancies that have occurred this last few years.
This is shocking news – It is my understanding that a criminal act may have taken place here and so the only correct way forward will be for Cheshire Police to investigate this matter. I will take this up with the Leader of the Council.
Youre a Lib Dem right and it’s the night before the election eh 🙂 Anyway yes I guess you are right as lawfully they are obliged to keep all records…’they’ being ALL council officials, elected members, officers, workers regardless of party association .. but the police are supposed to do what exactly ? Reprimand an ex employee for a really big mistake or maybe persue what they believe to have been an intentional act of fraud/malice/or ‘whatever you want to call it’ as no matter what happens the documents are gone and what proof would they have. All the more recent ones seem to be there so it there ‘could’ have been a time specific motive by someone or a alleged timed motive by someone else who knows. Surely someone somewhere amongst the councils workforce or realms WOULD have noticed at some stage sooner that documents were missing though so why has it only come to light after a residents complaint to the Ombudsam? Where I once worked we had to keep all records too and they were rather more important than house extensions etc but it was departmental responsibility to safeguard and keep them not the leader of the company. It was also our responsibility to ensure that back up copies were stored either electronically or in paper format elsewhere too. I could have accidentally shredded all the drawings and associated documents as I used to file them all but on occasion it was nexessary to destroy duplicates or unappoved drawings providing backups were available wither microfiched, electronis or otherwise. I was only in my late teens and early 20’s when I this big responsibility and what a good job I/we knew what I/we were doing eh !! Anyway it will all be forgotten about in a week or so no doubt after the elections and twaddle that always follows it !?!?
I am convinced there has been a criminal act. If you read the LGO report it is clear that the two complainants have suffered criminal damage following their complaint to the Council & LGO. They had paint thrown on their homes and cars on two occasionsl. Also the tenant of the bungalow owned by the developer from which he created the unauthorised access was convicted of harassment against the co complainants & received a restraining order. The whole thing stinks
It is insulting to the intelligence of the electorate for Ian Marks to expect us to believe him when he says “This is no stunt” because it so obviously is! Keith Bland states that an investigation process started last Thursday, very timely for them to start their low level mudslinging antics before the election. A few questions I would like to ask; ‘They have been in control of the council since 2006, so why, if such a vast amount of records were destroyed prior to that date, has it taken so long for them to notice they were missing?’ The report says ‘It must have involved a considerable administrative effort and a number of staff’. So how could it possibly be “… simply an isolated act of incompetence by a senior officer”?.
Any planning officer and some of the depts other staff members would be expected to be aware that the destruction of these records amounted to an illegal act. Surely they have been grossly negligent in their duties for not intervening at the time the records were destroyed and to have not disclosed the fact to the council’s leaders for all these years? Some of these officers are still employed by the council, doesn’t this sad affair throw their competence into question? Shouldn’t a full investigation of the planning dept be made.
Perhaps there is a positive element to Ian Marks’ stance re the auditor’s report in that he is now taking them seriously. When a previous report gave his administration 3 red flags for significant and very serious failure of governance he challenged it!!!
Furthermore, whilst investigations seem high on the agenda could we have a full, open and transparent investigation into the ‘iffy’ goings on re the Walton Hall Estate, and a full public apology for the blatant lies Ian Marks and his Executive board have told the public re that issue!
I don’t care who was in control at the time. It’s about justice, I can’t see just one person doing this – I know we all make mistakes but somebody must have sanctioned this act.
A;lso if people have suffered damage then they must have justice. I am starting to smell a rat working here – it’s almost as though somebody just wants the dust to settle.
I totally agree with Cllr Reynolds. If you take time to read the report. The fate of those residents with regards to the unauthorised access from the cul de sac and the unauthorised overbearing house will be decided following a report to the planning control comittee where enforcement actions decisions will be taken. The Council now needs to take decisive action and if this house should be a 3 bedroom house with no garage, as the LGO reports suggests, then action should be taken to bring it in line with the original approval. If this means the unathorised garage needs to be demolished, then the Council should enforce the removal of the garage. Not to do so gives a clear message to all other developers, that they don’t need to worry about sticking to the planning permission, or worry about planning conditions. Its time for the Council to sort this out.