Shed and Corruption – Part 13

Shed and Corruption - Part 13
From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
Date: 14/04/2022 (16:36:41 BST)
To: Nicola Robason
Cc: Jonathan Tew, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Emma Lewell-Buck MP,
Hayley Johnson, Gill Hayton (Solicitor)
Attachment: SandC-Part-13.pdf

Dear Nicola,

Manipulation of the Adopted Complaints Procedure by STC

Please see the attached letter. It is principally about UK Docks and the Council saying that the enclosure or shed built over the last slipway still in use on the Tyne, had been built to an approved plan and the local residents protesting that it had not, when the argument should have been between UK Docks and the Council.

From the very beginning our complaint was that, UK Docks’ shed was taller than permitted and someone with authority in the Planning Department must have agreed with our point of view because work stopped on it for two and a half months so an enforcement order must have been in place and the argument should have been whether UK Docks removed it, rebuilt it to the proper size or asked the Council to reconsider an application (for a taller and wider shed) retrospectively.

The first emails put out by the planning officer in charge of the slipway development were titled:- Approved boat repair shelter at Tyne Slipway, River Drive, South Shields but others and I knew that it was unlikely to have been approved because we could estimate from the drawings he provided that it was taller than approved or guessed it was not because he would not answer the direct question posed about the height being 12 or 15 meters and referred the questioner to the complaints process.

When I said nothing had changed, foot of page 4, I was referring particularly to the width because it implicates the building inspector directly, it would have been he, Mr Telford, who checked that stanchions were set correctly onto the baseplates. He had, by approving them hidden the fact that they were further apart than permitted. When we started questioning the height and the dimensions were measured by the Principal Planning Officer mid September 2013 he had the choice of correcting things but did not take it.

It appears that he did need to correct it because he knew that by the time the complaint got to the Ombudsman he could rely on a Senior Planning Manager giving misinformation to the Ombudsman so she would find for the Council rather than the local residents of whom I was one. From her Summary, 15-Apr-15:-

There is no evidence of fault in the way the Council dealt with the breach of planning control and its decision not to take enforcement action. It kept residents informed throughout the process.

The evidence of any fault in the Council’s handling of the breach had been destroyed by the Principal Planning Officer with the help of successive managers until it got to the Ombudsman and it looks she was easily persuaded to ignore the evidence I tried to put to her and when I tried to present the evidence to an MP, the Council’s Corporate Lead had to falsely accuse others and I of making allegations before she was able to repeat to the MP for Berwick on 25 June 2015 :-

The Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that the Council had acted appropriately in our approach relating to the planning application and subsequent action, full details of which would have been sent by their office to Mr Dawson.

A year later she said, 5 October 2016:-

I can again advise that there is no evidence to suggest that there has been deliberate misinformation provided by Council officers to the Local Government Ombudsman.

I concluded:-

“This bring me to the question of its planned vs. actual width. The width was never in doubt as it was clearly shown on the drawings held by both UK Docks and the Council but what they both had not realised the width could, with surprising accuracy, be determined from Greens Place. This was because UK Docks had made the sides vertical and therefore pointed to the footings laid in 2001 and I found it to be nearly a meter wider than planned.

“The structure was measured in September 2013, the complaint that the shed failed to meet the second condition went to Planning Enquiries in January 2014 and the public meeting was held in March 2014 and the whole point of the meeting was to decide what to do after the Council had agreed that the shed was 2.7m taller than planned.

“I was tasked with writing to the Planning Manager to request removal of the shed and I took the opportunity of thanking him for his concession:- “Thank you also for confirming that the Slipway Shed is not built to the approved 1996 plans.

“Mr Tew and you, will now know that it was the people under Mr Mansbridge’ command who made it an issue between the residents and the Council when it should have been a simple matter of telling UK Docks to build their shed elsewhere.

“That or granting permission retrospectively and we all know UK Docks never asked for it because there was no need when they had the Principal Planning Manager at their beck and call from day one.

Kind regards
Michael Dawson