The other residents may have made allegations but if they have been complaining about the noise and change of use of the enclosure, it is unlikely. Other than to have born witness to noise issues, I had only complained that the shed is over size, and the Council had done nothing about that since they were told it was over size in late 2013.
That was until December 18th 2016 when I raised a complaint about them using the shed on a Sunday without notice. It was actually the noise that alerted us all to it use. I initially thought is was from the Fish Quay opposite until I remembered that the Fish Quay did not operate on a Sunday out of consideration of their neighbours and that includes ‘us’ over the water.
From my notes I can see that none of us have been making ‘allegations’ and was unreasonable for the Corporate Lead to have accused us all of making them, in a letter to the MP for Berwick 25-Jun-15. I was lodging in Amble at that time:
The matters and allegations raised by your constituent are well documented and have been subject to a number of enquiries from Mr Dawson and other local residents over a lengthy period of time.
If one checks the facts one will see that the shed is oversize and that the Ombudsman has been misinformed when she claims it is not nearly 3m taller than permitted. I did not find out that we had been falsely accused of making allegations for nearly six months. There was little I could do about it, and by then I had decided to seek advice from solicitors in Sunderland, Peter Dunn & Co.
2016 | 26-Jan | The advice was sound except that complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman being misled would not be addressed after a very short time period. The fact that they had misled the Ombudsman still remains and it is safe to say that a corrupt Council has been shielded from scrutiny by the Ombudsman. |
2016 | 4-Jan | First sight of letter from Corporate Lead to Anne-Marie 25th June and then only because it pointed out the Council that allowing UK Docks to extend their shed was hiding the fact that it had been built without planning permission. |
2015 | 23-Dec | Request for copy of letter to Anne-Marie 25th June. Only attachment 6 sent. Subsequent requests for a copy of the Actual Letter have been declined. |
25-Jun | Reply from STC to Berwick MP in which the Corporate Lead uses the term ‘allegations’ but more importantly she does not provide any new plans. Not seen until 4-Jan-2016 |
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9-Jun MD | Letter to Berwick MP; copy to CEO finishing: “If Mr Swales provides any new plans to show you that I am wrong in my assessment of the development on River Drive by UK Docks please let me know.” |
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1-Jun | Berwick MP to CEO; copy to MD a very good summary of what I was saying on May-26. |
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26-May | Email to Berwick MP’s Office giving some details about the shed. |
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May | Partly my fault that the correspondence was redirected to Anne-Marie as I had not made it clear that I was only lodging in Amble. The Council can confirm that the rates on 70 Greens Place were paid by me 1999-2018. | |
31-Mar MD | Email to MP for South Shields Where I expand on my complaint to the Ombudsman 12-Dec-14, and add that no action has been taken:
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