The lengthy period of time began when we first enquiries about the height of the shed in September 2013 and were told on September the 5th by the Principal Planning Officer, Mr P Cunningham:- This development was approved by the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation.
As I’ve repeatedly said, since March 2014, what we see today on the slipway managed by UK Docks was not approved by the Corporation and since then one has the choice of agreeing with Mr Cunningham, or with the local residents and I. A binary choice, with the lie that UK Docks have permission for their shed or the truth, which is that they have not.
That you describe theharbourview.co.uk as Yet Another Waste of Net-space, puts you among those who back his view rather than the view of those who claim perfectly reasonably that the shed had never been approved.
Everything to do with UK Docks is and their shed is now swept under the carpet by Monitoring Officer, Nicola Robason when she declares:- “It remains the case that all complaints procedures relating to this matter have been exhausted both internally within the Council and externally”.
She is hiding the fact that two Councillors, two people with an interest in UK Docks and the Principal Planning Officer decided at a meeting, 25-Nov-13, to turn a blind eye to the fact that UK Docks did not have permission for their slipway shed.
She was also hiding the following:-
- that the Principal Planning Officer claimed that the shed had been approved by referring back to a meeting, 25-Nov-13, we had been told that the shed was legal;
- that the Planning Manager backed the lie, 15-Jan-14, that UK Docks had approval for their shed;
- that the Head of Development Services, Mr G Mansbridge, backed his planning officers;
- the same Council Officer held a meeting, 8-Jul-14, to examine an approved drawing of UK Docks but it was not produced;
- that a Senior Planning Officer gave misinformation/misrepresentation to the Local Government Ombudsman;
- that a Corporate Lead lied to an MP when she said the 5 items above were allegations;
- that the Second Inspector for the Ombudsman conflated the complaint that the shed was taller than planned with the complaint that the Council had misled the first Ombudsman.
I hope you agree with me that the sixth item on the list was almost offensive as Mr Mansbridge overwritten the history of the fist four items with with one in which he claimed the shed had approval:-
If you require any further information in relation to this matter you may contact George Mansbridge, Head of Development Services on 0191 424 7566.
For a brief period, less than 2 weeks, it appeared that the Monitoring had changed her mind and decided that all the complaints procedures had not been exhausted internally because very late in 2020 I received what I now call the broken promise from Leah Smith on behalf of Nicola:-
Dear Mr Dawson
Thank you for your email regarding complaints you have raised with the Council.
I am writing to acknowledge receipt and confirm that this matter will be looked into and you will receive a response week commencing 4th January.
Regards
Leah