Now five want planning boss to quit

TWO more councillors have called for the resignation of Warrington Borough Council’s environment and regeneration chief – bringing the total to five.
All are from wards in the Warrington North constituency of Labour MP Helen Jones, who was the first to call on environment and regeneration director Andy Farrall to quit.
At the same time, borough council leader Terry O’Neill (right) and Cllr David Keane, executive member for environment and public protection, have issued a joint statement setting out the council’s view on the latest developments in the controversial move to build 150 houses at Peel Hall – and calling for a report into the affair.
Satnam Developments have lodged an appeal on the grounds that the council has failed to determine its application within the statutory time scale – 13 weeks.
According to Helen Jones, this means the application – opposed by thousands of local residents – will now be decided by an outside planning inspector rather than the council’s own planning committee.
The two new councillors who have joined the chorus demanding that Mr Farrall resign are Cllr Graham Friend (Poulton North) and Cllr Kevin Bennett (Fairfield and Howley).
The other three are Cllrs Steve Roberts (Poplars and Hulme), Billy Lines-Rowlands (Poulton North) and Chris Vobe, (Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft).
Cllr Friend, a member of the planning committee since 2011, said: “I cannot express how disappointed I am at the way the Peel Hall application has been handled by council planning officers.”
He said it was not the first time the planning department had made mistakes and there must come a time when one mistake was “one too many”
He added: “Responsibility should be taken by those who are paid to take it. The buck must stop with the executive director. As a member of the planning committee, I cannot now in all good conscience say that I have either trust or faith in Mr Farrall any longer.
“It is for that reason that I support the calls of colleagues for him to tender his resignation without delay.”
Cllr Bennett said: “Public trust and confidence in the Town Hall planning department is at rock bottom. Peel Hall is the latest in a long line of catastrophes which cannot go ignored any more.
“The events of the past few days have demonstrated that the executive director no longer has the confidence of elected councillors.
“Without that confidence, his position at this authority is no longer tenable. He must accept responsibilities for the failures of his department and the inexcusable fiasco at Peel Hall.”
In their joint statement, Cllr O’Neill and Cllr Keane stressed that the Planning Inspectorate has not yet confirmed that the Satnam appeal is valid.
They said: “We have requested that the chief executive provide us with a detailed report on the administrative and regulatory processes related to this application.
“At this stage the Planning Inspectorate has not given their view on the validity of the Satnam appeal.
“The council has continually said that it is opposed in policy terms to the development of Peel Hall. We have recently enhanced the resources and management of the planning team who are one of the busiest in the North West.
“We also have had in place for the past year a detailed planning improvement programme which is overseen by a cross party sub-committee.”
In an earlier statement, the council said the Peel Hall application would still be heard by its development management committee.
The final decision would be made by an independent planning inspector in exactly the same way as if Satnam had appealed after the committee had considered the application.