HELEN Jones MP has slammed Warrington Borough Council for failing to adequately investigate the planning department’s missed deadline in respect of Peel Hall.
The Warrington North MP (pictured) said: “The report which has been produced is totally inadequate and shows a lack of concern for the north of the town.
“We are told that officers were busy with the Arpley Tip application. Of course, that was an application which was very important to people who live in that area. But Peel Hall is just as important to my constituents. Why should their needs be ignored?
“The report also says that the council planning committee can still ‘express a view’ on the application. This ignores the fact that if the planning department had observed the deadlines, the council would be deciding this application, not simply expressing a view.”
Ms Jones went on: “The way this application has been handled has been flawed from the start. Now the right to decide it locally has been lost.
“We have seen too many planning disasters in the north of the town. It is time my constituents got a fair deal from this department and it is time that someone was held accountable for its failings.”
The report produced into affair suggested that the council needed more experienced planners and recommended increasing the number of staff in the planning department.
As a result of the council missing a 13-week deadline to deal with an application for 150 houses at Peel Hall resulting in the applicants, Satnam Developments, appealing on the grounds of “non determination.”
This means the application will be considered by an independent inspector rather than the council’s planning committee.
But the committee will still be able to express its views when it meets next month.
MP in new attack on council
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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.
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It is taking the woman a long time to get her message across to the incompetents. Has she no friends in higher places? No need for these public outbursts they are getting boring.
Perhaps one of the biggest flaws in WBC is, that too many officers live outside of the Borough and don’t care about the town They just see it as a job and make decisions accordingly. This should be balanced by councillors controlling decisions, but they don’t seem able to OR they perhaps forget they are there to serve the Residents for which they are well remunerated.
The only person who has always voiced her concern and those of Warrington residents over a succession of planning disasters is Helen Jones MP. Her outbursts are not boring they are to the point and correctly aimed. Whatever your views on her Helen Jones and not our elected councillors has consistently called for planners to be responsible for their actions, she is right in saying “It is time my constituents got a fair deal from this department and it is time that someone was held accountable for its failings.” Left to themselves most councillors, with a few exceptions (sadly too few), always start calling each other names instead of dealing with a dysfunctional department lurching from one crisis to another. Everytime a planning disaster occurs they cobble together an internal inquiry and fob us off with the “lessons have been learned excuse”. Trouble is they never do and the highly paid staff don’t either. Now after so many planning “mistakes” we are told we need more experienced staff, because the ones we have been paying highly for are not up to the job. The residents are getting a poor service from every quarter, and Helen Jones is right to draw attention to it.
Labour MP attacks Labour council yet again – its hardly news. Its rather tedious now to be honest, maybe she should just step down and run it herself?
Well done oedipusrex that woman seems to think she is in charge of the town would'nt think she was a Labour party member seems to have a right chip on her shoulder from the time she became an M,P. First of all she did'nt get on with the other Labour M.P. Helen Southworth then she attacked the Chief exec Diana Terris, now she attacks the Labour run Council.
Are you Helen Jones love child or something? You always make out that the sun shines in everything she does. Truth is that she is a politican and only interested in one thing. Whcih is herself.
I am no relation of nor do I have any connection with Helen Jones, but I do give credit where it is due. That is all I have done here. I wish that I could have said the same about most of our local councillors, but as other people have pointed out they often say one thing and mean something else.
No one on any WBC councils ever takes responsibility for their actions, disasters are always billed as either a bit of muddled thinking or so many are judged culpable so that everyone shares the blame and they all move off to conjure up the next disaster for which everyone refuses to take responsibility, but they still get generous salary increases. Under these circumstances Helen Jones is more than justified in drawing attention to Labour, Lib Dems or Conservative administrations that refuse to take responsibility for what happens in their watch. That is what she has done throughout regardless of who is running the show…in WBC case it always seems to be mismanaging the show. Gone are the days when those in local government management or executive positions accepted the rewards and responsibilities of their posts. Now it's all the former and none of the latter. In the private sector managers still have to stand up and be counted, but the only counting done in WBC is when the monthly salary cheque is received regardless of the disasters they are involved in.
Spot on oedipusrex
1. She has a right and a duty to represent the views of her constituents.
2. She’s bang on the money on this issue.
Both Helen Jones and Tina seem to me to be bang on the money on this issue.
Helen Jones may well be right – but it is no wonder that the officers run the council when the Labour group are so divided.
Nick, if memory serves me right the LIb Cons were in power when the records were destroyed. Officers have tended to run riot or do as they please, then tell the elected ones what they have done which ever party is supposed to be in power for the many many years I have lived here. This will continue to happen, whatever we might be told or pacified with, until some one with the cojones to bring about change for the better decides to act. Any takers on how long that will take?
Your memory is different to mine – as I understood it the destruction was under Labour but was discovered when the Libs and Cons were in control. I agree that the members need to get control over the officers – unfortunately (as is the tendency with their party) they seem too busy fighting each other to present a united front in bringing the officers into line. It’s like that old political joke about the opposition being the other party in but the enemy being other member’s of your own party. If labour was a one-man band it would break up over creative difficulties