In May 2013
EKO applied to Thanet Council for permission
to build 550 houses on land adjacent to the New Haine Road at Westwood Cross. Although
Hart’s colleague Labour councillors strongly opposed the planning application
saying that “We simply cannot understand how council officers were ever
directed to make proposals which go so blatantly against TDC's own established
policies” and complaining that “in a time of austerity and cut-backs, officers
have been allowed to carry out a substantial and extremely costly amount of
work (preparing a planning application) that may well not meet the requirements
of the full council”, Hart nevertheless threw his weight behind preparing and
submitting a massively expensive application which had little chance of
success.
In October 2013
Thanet Council’s Planning Committee unanimously rejected EKOs application with
several Labour Councillors making devastating attacks on the plans. Within days of the rejection, the EKO board held
a telephone conference at which Hart and McGonigal agreed to seek expensive advice
from a Queens Counsel about how to
appeal against the decision of a Council of which one was the political leader
and the other the head of paid service. If ever there was a conflict interest
this was it. But neither of them chose to declare their conflicts. Even though
Thanet Council’s Constitution requires the Leader to “promote the highest
standards of probity” and the Chief Executive
to “follow every lawful expressed policy of the
Authority”.Ten days later the EKO Board, including Hart and McGonigal, met in Maidstone to consider the advice from their QC. The minutes of the meeting, which I managed to obtain via a Freedom of Information request say that the board “resolved unanimously to:- Progress an appeal following the refusal by the LPA to grant planning permission”. Once again although Hart and McGongigal were in effect agreeing to appeal against their own Council they failed to declare or act on their blatant conflcts of interest.
The preparation of the appeal
took many weeks work and comprises of several large cardboard boxes full of
documents. I understand that planning consultants and the QC were paid to put together
the appeal and that it cost a fortune. I received a copy of the official notification
of appeal from the Planning Inspectorate 2 weeks ago. The appeal will take the
form of a public enquiry held over a week and the enquiry will report its
findings to the Secretary of State Eric
Pickles who will make a decision about whether permission to bulid the 550
houses is granted or not.
The total cost of the planning
appeal, including the costs of Thanet Council’s defence of its position, will, by
my estimation, be close to £100,000. The major source of TDCs and EKOs
income is council tax. So that means you
will be forced to pay the costs of a company owned by Thanet Council, to go to war with
Thanet Council. And who decided that it was sensible for Thanet Council to
fight Thanet Council at massive public expense? Why of course the Leader and Chief
Executive of Thanet Council Clive Hart and Sue McGonigal. Are they sorry. I don’t
think so. Are they angry? Massively. It has been reported to me that a Labour Party worker, who may have connections with Thanet, was allegedly spreading
malicious, totally unfounded, rumours about me in the tea rooms of the EU Strasborg Parliament building. A Council officer has been instructed, at
public expense, to contact the Green Party to complain about me. I am reliably
informed that the Chief Executive may have held a meeting at which she allegedly sought advice about how legal action can be taken
against me to prevent me from commenting
on the jaw-dropping incompetence and maladministration which all too often features in the activities
of Thanet Council and its political and
officer leadership – no doubt this advice will be secured at public expense.
Co-incidentally I attended a
meeting yesterday to talk about the legalisation of cannabis and opening a cannabis café in
Thanet. Well no matter how much cannabis you might choose to smoke, it would be impossible to alter your mind to such a degree that you could make this nonsense up. It really is time for a change. Roll on 2015.
FOOTNOTE. In the course of looking into the EKO fiasco I uncovered what I believe might be extremely serious abuses of the planning process. I have formally reported these abuses to the Council's Monitoring Officer and the Police. I will not comment on these issues until any investigations are completed.
You appear to have uncovered something very fishy.
ReplyDeleteBut, what I don't understand is, what motive would Hart and McGonigal have for this? The company is part owned by TDC and KCC, so what would be the motivation underlying the moves as you describe them? There wouldn't appear to be any personal gain for them. Do you think that they're just too drunk on the idea of power, or is there something deeper?
You are right. There is no personal gain involved. In my opinion their actions were motivated by power and very misguided. Some much more serious issues about possible abuse of process are also involved here. I have not said anything about this possible abuse as it might become to subject to investigation.
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Its very simple, EKO has been and still is a multi million pound drain on TDC. And unlike when EKO was established, TDC is in dire financial trouble. So if TDC can make a return on EKO by building houses at least TDC will be able to balance its books by 2015 otherwise TDC will go under and Hart and co will be blamed for this.
ReplyDeleteThat makes a lot of sense, and the risk of political disaster does explain Hart's involvement in what looks like a very underhanded move. It also explains McGonigal's involvement - the responsible finance officer really doesn't want to be seen as being responsible for bringing the council to its knees.
DeleteSo, we have two people who are worried about their personal careers using Council money to try and dig themselves out of a pit that they are largely responsible for creating in the first place. Despicable, but slightly better than just being drunk on power.
I think you're right.
Just to point out that it was the previous administration that together with KCC formed the EKO for puroses of land and property speculation and the subsequent huge spend of over £5 millions on the spine road.
DeleteLet's see all the costs and invoices involved this EKO quango. Latchford was involved in it for a while and it seemed a nifty way to shovel expenses and staff costs between the two councils and claim secrecy. Not that dissimilar to Top Temps.
DeleteIan - you say roll on 2015, but without a new way in politics it is not going to any different. Quick action is needed to put right the lousy system that has been in place for far too long.
ReplyDeleteIt is like couch grass or mares tail mate. There is no quick solution. It requires constant digging out of every bit at every depth or it will re-assert itself.
DeleteLabour had a landslide in TDC 95 what difference did they make ? Sadly if the weed has roots forty years deep you have to dig forty years deep to kill it.
The problem is the executive, I repeat the problem is the executive.
ReplyDeleteCould this be the reason that Clive Hart and his cronies in the cabinet reacted so strongly when they thought that they were being criticised for being 'corrupt' by the Standards Committee Report? As I recall, that report mentioned only perceptions, while all the Councillors at the meeting yelled that they were not corrupt.
ReplyDelete