Agenda item

From Daniel Fulton

This question is asked on behalf of the Fews Lane Consortium, a community action group based in Longstanton working to promote the principles of sustainable development and to advocate for accountability in local government.

 

Over the past year, the Consortium has been working with communities across the district that have been adversely affected by plainly unfair planning decisions taken by this council without regard for its own policies and without regard for basic standards of procedural fairness.

 

Time and time again, when responding to complaints from local residents, officers seem to have been instructed to concede nothing and to deny culpability at all costs and in all circumstances, even when the facts clearly and unambiguously point to mistakes having been made on the part of the council. It is as though officers feel that it is more important for them to protect the council from reputational damage than to actually address real instances of injustice resulting directly from unfair decisions made by this council.

 

In the council’s recently adopted business plan, the council has pledged to be ‘a modern and caring council’ that puts its ‘customers at the centre of everything we do’. What programmes or policies will the Leader of the Council commit to putting into place to see that these these values and organisational objectives are reflected in the way in which officers carry out their day-to-day duties on behalf of the council?

Minutes:

Following a short introductory statement in which he commented on accountability within the Council, Mr Daniel Fulton asked the following question:-

 

This question is asked on behalf of the Fews Lane Consortium, a community action group based in Longstanton working to promote the principles of sustainable development and to advocate for accountability in local government.

 

Over the past year, the Consortium has been working with communities across the district that have been adversely affected by plainly unfair planning decisions taken by this council without regard for its own policies and without regard for basic standards of procedural fairness.

 

Time and time again, when responding to complaints from local residents, officers seem to have been instructed to concede nothing and to deny culpability at all costs and in all circumstances, even when the facts clearly and unambiguously point to mistakes having been made on the part of the council. It is as though officers feel that it is more important for them to protect the council from reputational damage than to actually address real instances of injustice resulting directly from unfair decisions made by this council.

 

In the council’s recently adopted business plan, the council has pledged to be ‘a modern and caring council’ that puts its ‘customers at the centre of everything we do’. What programmes or policies will the Leader of the Council commit to putting into place to see that these values and organisational objectives are reflected in the way in which officers carry out their day-to-day duties on behalf of the council?

 

Councillor Bridget Smith, the Leader of the Council, indicated that she did not agree with the comments made by Mr Fulton in his introductory statement and that she was sorry that he believed that the Council had made ‘plainly unfair planning decisions’.  She did not believe that to be the case.  It was certainly not true that officers had been instructed to ‘concede nothing and to deny culpability at all costs and in all circumstances’.  She indicated that what was true was that everyone made mistakes and the Council’s complaints procedure was designed both to address possible mistakes, but  also, importantly, to help it to learn from those mistakes.  Alongside the Council’s internal procedures were the external, independent review mechanisms of the Local Government Ombudsman and the judicial system, although it was preferable to be able to resolve issues without recourse to those external mechanisms.

 

Clearly, each planning application had a specific set of circumstances and not all people would agree with officer and committee decisions. Officers across the Council shared a commitment to ensuring transparent and good decision making.  Within the shared planning service there was a comprehensive implementation and change programme underway to ensure that improvements were made, where needed. The Leader indicated that she was fully supportive of this process and of the staff who were working hard to deliver for residents.  Bringing two large and complex services together was never going to be an easy task, but she was confident that, while there was still some way to go, the Council was on the right track and was making solid progress.

 

Mr Fulton whilst not raising a supplementary question, indicated that he felt there was a disconnect between the sentiments expressed by the Leader of the Council and his experience as a resident of the District.

 

The Leader of the Council stated that she was sorry that Mr Fulton felt there to be a such a disconnect as he had outlined.  She acknowledged that improvements were on-going in the planning service and hoped that in future he would experience those improvements. The Leader concluding by indicating that the Council valued the engagement of its residents and that Mr Fulton was welcome to come along to meetings and to put his questions directly to Members.