Corporate Lead and Members of Parliament.

Posted on December 19, 2019 by moderator

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, Corruption, Planning, UK Docks | Leave a comment

Complaint: 248789 – Inappropriate Development on River Drive

Posted on December 12, 2019 by moderator 
----- Forwarded message from Nicola Robason Nicola.Robason@southtyneside.gov.uk -----
    Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2019 15:56:44 +0000
    From: Nicola Robason Nicola.Robason@southtyneside.gov.uk
 Subject: RE: Complaint: 248789 - Unplanned Development on River Drive
      To: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk, Cllr Angela Hamilton Cllr.Angela.Hamilton@southtyneside.gov.uk,
Cllr John Anglin cllr.john.anglin@southtyneside.gov.uk,
Cllr David Francis davidfrancisdrums@hotmail.co.uk,
Mike Harding Mike.Harding@southtyneside.gov.uk,
"Gill Hayton (Solicitor)" Gill.Hayton@southtyneside.gov.uk, 
George Mansbridge George.Mansbridge@southtyneside.gov.uk, 
Hayley Johnson Hayley.Johnson@southtyneside.gov.uk, 
Alison Hoy Alison.Hoy@southtyneside.gov.uk
 Dear Mr Dawson,
 A typographic error on my behalf. 
Apologies – the sentence should have read ‘now’ consider rather than ‘not’ consider.
 I hope my reference to contacting you further in due course may have indicated this.
 Many thanks
 Nicola
 Nicola Robason
 Head of Corporate & External Affairs and Monitoring Officer
 South Tyneside Council

Dear Nicola and Everybody,

 Thank you for your apology and please note I have taken this opportunity to correct some of my own typos. I have also detached the attachments as they appear to have been duplicates.

 As you can see from the List of Denials which I have attached I have not added you yet but I have included new items 40-42 which concern the conduct of Councillor Anglin and the interference of Customer Advocacy which I may elaborate on later.

 Please discard my email of 12th December and its attachments and replace it with this email. You will notice that I still remain sceptical about getting any clarification on the retrospective planning.

 I know I shouldn’t judge you on one email but your predecessors have not set a good precedence. I suggest you look again at my correspondence with Haley Johnson and in particular my email to Michaela (nee Hamilton) of 2nd September 2016. It and my response to Mrs Johnson appear to have been discarded. Alison should be able to provide you with a copy of both.

 I seems that the Council have a policy for discarding (chucking in the bin) complaints that they do not wish answer and that goes for most of the officers I have had dealings with over the last six years, hence my response to your email of the 12th.

 My original complaint was discarded mid-January 2014 and that is why you will have problems getting to the truth and I wish you well in uncovering it.

 Kind Regards,

 Michael Dawson

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, LGO, Misconduct, Misinformation/Misrepresentation | Leave a comment

Dishonesty at Town Hall, 5-Dec-19

Posted on December 5, 2019 by moderator 
Complaint: 248789 - Unplanned Development on River Drive
Date: 05/12/2019 (17:32:25 GMT)
From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
To: Nicola Robason
Cc: Emma Lewell-Buck MP Cllr Angela Hamilton Mike Harding Gill Hayton (Solicitor),George Mansbridge, Hayley Johnson, Stephen Hepburn MP, Alison Hoy Cllr David Francis, Andrew Tilbury
Attachments: FoIRequest.pdf (46 KB)
             Dear Nichola
             
Dear Nicola,
Please see the Freedom of Information (FOI) request which I have attached. I managed to establish that no retrospective planning application for the shed had been made and I just need you to confirm it. As Monitoring Officer you should be able to do that without any bother. It is a binary choice: Has retrospective planning for the shed been granted: Yes/No.
I have asked your predecessor, Mike Harding, the same question in a different way but he has not answered:
"Angela and therefore Julie have been misinformed by UK Docks and you can confirm that also. To it bluntly, whoever told them that UK Docks had submitted a retrospective application was lying."
We, the local residents, all know that UK Docks never made a request for retrospective planning else we would have had notice of it and we had not. We also knew that the shed had been built nearly 3m taller than permitted before the 5th frame went up but the Council said otherwise and misinformed the Ombudsman about it. The reason for this is now known: firstly to hide misconduct and the second to deflect enquiries and they had been doing that for 5 years.
I can forsee that the Council/UK Docks will try the same trick with 'retrospective planning' and this needs to be nipped in the bud hence my FoI and the 'Dear Nicola' letter which I have also attached.*
Kind regards
Michael
* Dishonesty 5-Dec-19.pdf (129 KB)

05-Dec-19

Dear Nicola,

Dishonesty at the Town Hall

As the new Monitoring Officer for South Tyneside Council, I fear there is much that you may not have been told and here is some of the background leading to the Freedom of Information request.

If you read through the correspondence I had with Planning from the date of meeting 25-Nov-13 till mid February you will see that the Planning Manager eventually conceded that the shed was taller than planned, though it was not till 4-Mar-14 that I thanked him him for the concession: “Thank you also for confirming that the Slipway Shed is not built to the approved 1996 plans. Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, LGO, Misconduct, Misinformation/Misrepresentation | 1 Comment

Freedom of Information Request

Posted on December 5, 2019 by moderator

Dear Nicola,

Please see the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, below. I managed to establish that no retrospective planning application for the shed had been made and I just need you to confirm it. As Monitoring Officer you should be able to do that without any bother. It is a binary choice: Has retrospective planning for the shed been granted: Yes/No.
I have asked your predecessor, Mike Harding, the same question in a different way but he has not answered:

“Angela and therefore Julie have been misinformed by UK Docks and you can confirm that also. To it bluntly, whoever told them that UK Docks had submitted a retrospective application was lying.”

We, the local residents, all know that UK Docks never made a request for retrospective planning else we would have had notice of it and we had not. We also knew that the shed had been built nearly 3m taller than permitted before the 5th frame went up but the Council said otherwise and misinformed the Ombudsman about it. The reason for this is now known: firstly to hide misconduct and the second to deflect enquiries and they had been doing that for 5 years.
I can foresee that the Council/UK Docks will try the same trick with ‘retrospective planning’ and this needs to be nipped in the bud hence my FOI and the ‘Dear Nicola’ letter which I have also attached.

Kind regards
Michael Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, LGO, Misconduct, Misinformation/Misrepresentation | Leave a comment

To Monitoring Officer 5-DEC-19

Posted on December 5, 2019 by moderator

Complaint: 248789 – Unplanned Development on River Drive
From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
Date: 05/12/2019 (17:32:25 GMT)
To: Nicola Robason
Cc: Emma Lewell-Buck MP, Cllr Angela Hamilton, Mike Harding, Gill Hayton (Solicitor), George Mansbridge,  Hayley Johnson, Stephen Hepburn MP,  Alison Hoy,  Cllr David Francis,  Andrew Tilbury

Dear Nicola,

Please see the Freedom of Information (FOI) request which I have attached. I managed to establish that no retrospective planning application for the shed had been made and I just need you to confirm it. As Monitoring Officer you should be able to do that without any bother. It is a binary choice: Has retrospective planning for the shed been granted: Yes/No.
I have asked your predecessor, Mike Harding, the same question in a different way but he has not answered:

/”Angela and therefore Julie have been misinformed by UK Docks and you can confirm that also. To it bluntly, whoever told them that UK Docks had submitted a retrospective application was lying.”/

We, the local residents, all know that UK Docks never made a request for retrospective planning else we would have had notice of it and we had not. We also knew that the shed had been built nearly 3m taller than permitted before the 5th frame went up but the Council said otherwise and misinformed the Ombudsman about it. The reason for this is now known: firstly to hide misconduct and the second to deflect enquiries and they had been doing that for 5 years.
I can foresee that the Council/UK Docks will try the same trick with ‘retrospective planning’ and this needs to be nipped in the bud hence my FOI and the ‘Dear Nicola’ letter which I have also attached.

Kind regards
Michael

Posted in Information/Evidence | Leave a comment

Original Complaint Remains Hidden

Posted on November 15, 2019 by moderator

It may as well have been destroyed.

The email to Michaela was passed back to the author about which the complaint was made when it should have been addressed by Customer Advocacy thus effectively throwing it and my response in the bin. This meant that the author could resend the misrepresentation again. It being “There was no evidence of deliberate misinformation being given to the Ombudsman”.
The  word ‘deliberate’ is to avoid the point as misinformation of this sort is deliberate especially if the Ombudsman is not to uphold a legitimate complaint.
Mrs Hayley Johnson directly contradicts an independent Solicitor.

From: “Customer Advocates”
Date: Fri, September 16, 2016 10:42 am
To: “mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk”

Dear Mr Dawson

Thank you for your email and the copy of the letter sent to Mrs Johnson. Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, Misconduct | Leave a comment

Dishonesty at the Town Hall: 30-Oct-19

Posted on October 30, 2019 by moderator
From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
Date: 30/10/2019 (07:34:05 AM GMT)
To: Emma Lewell-Buck MP
Cc: Cllr Angela Hamilton, Cllr David Francis, Cllr Anglin, Nicola Robason

Dear Emma,

Dishonesty at the Town Hall

First of all I would like to thank Angela and yourself for getting UK Docks to concede that the enclosure (shed) on River drive was in breach of planning control from the very beginning. However they have exchanged one misrepresentation for another, the first being; that the shed was built according to approved plans and the second; that they had applied for and been granted permission retrospectively for the shed we now see.
For those that are new to this let me repeat what should be a given; the authorised drawing from 1996 states quite clearly that the shed is nearly thirteen meters high at the landward end giving a height at river end of fifteen and a half meters.

Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse of Complaints System, Corruption, LGO | 1 Comment

Reappraisal of Planning Breaches

Posted on September 25, 2019 by moderator

25-Sep-19

Dear Angela,

Since I wrote to you, and copied Cllr Francis and others on 12-Sep-19 things have rapidly moved on and are mirroring events that took place more than five years ago. You and everybody can now see them unfold in real time. In the spring of 2014 the Planning Officers stifled a legitimate complaint so they did not have to respond to it. The complaint was that the enclosure on the slipway on River Drive (shed) was not built to the approved plan and the Council had done nothing about it.

UK Docks and or South Tyneside Council, it was not clear from the correspondence, in telling you that permission had been granted retrospectively for the shed have admitted that the shed was built without planning permission and thereby conceding that we had been right for all along and it was nearly 3 meters taller than planned. Continue reading →

Posted in Misconduct | Leave a comment

Issue dodged by Building Control

Posted on September 19, 2019 by moderator 
Date:  17/09/2019 (03:12:21 PM BST)
From: Deborah Graham Deborah.Graham@southtyneside.gov.uk
To: Planning applications Planningapplications@southtyneside.gov.uk
Copy To: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
Subject: Tyne Slipway & Eng Co Ltd Erection of a Shelter 
ST/0242 /96 
This email has been classified as: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Hi Planning
Please see attached and email below which I believe was meant for planning
Regards
Debbie
Debbie Graham Operations & Partnership Officer
Town Hall and Civic Offices, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne & Wear,
NE33 2RL
T 0191 424 7899 I 07436038432 I 0 deborah.graham@southtyneside.gov.uk

It is clear that Debbie Graham has been asked to pass the issue, by those responsible for it; i.e. enforcement, to planning and I have asked her to pass it back to where it belongs and attached two more drawings:

 Tyne Slipway & Eng Co Ltd Erection of a Shelter ST/0242 /96        
 From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk          
 Date: 19/09/2019 (07:12:34 AM BST)          
 To: Deborah Graham,Building Control Services          
 Cc:  Planning Applications, Customer Advocates

Continue reading →

Posted in Misconduct | 1 Comment

Building Control at South Tyneside

Posted on September 17, 2019 by moderator 
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2019 14:55:15 +0100
From: mick.dawson@theharbourview.co.uk
To: Building Control buildingcontrol@southtyneside.gov.uk
Cc: Cllr Angela Hamilton Cllr.angela.hamilton@southtyneside.gov.uk,
Cllr David Francis davidfrancisdrums@hotmail.co.uk,
Cllr Anglin cllr.john.anglin@southtyneside.gov.uk,
Emma Lewell-Buck MP emma.lewell-buck.mp@parliament.uk,
Stephen Hepburn MP hepburns@parliament.uk,
Customer Advocates Customer.Advocates@southtyneside.gov.uk
Subject: Tyne Slipway & Eng Co Ltd Erection of a Shelter ST/0242 /96

Dear Sir or Madam.

Please see the grant, set of drawings and photograph attached:

8296/1A is not approved, presumably because it shows both ends of the shed to be the same height (15.5m) while also showing a gradient of 2.7m between them. One of the dimensions is obviously wrong and reference to to 8296/2, one of which has been authorised and gives the landward end as 12.7m. When one takes into account that the footings at that point are at 96.1m the permitted height at the river end is therefore 15.5m. The length and width are clearly given as 22m and 12.2m respectively.

The shed we see today is 27.5m long (my estimate using the sixth, photograph of the set of footings laid in 2001- attached), 18.2m high at the river end and 13.1m wide as measured by the Council in September 2013. It was therefore in breach of planning control in length and breadth since 2001 and in height since September 2013 but nothing has been done about it because no enforcement orders were made. It was claimed that the variation from plan was not material so there was nothing to enforce.

Following approaches to the current owners by Councillor Hamilton and the MP for South Shields, they – UK Docks, are now saying that they they were given permission for it retrospectively which I know to be untrue.

Please confirm that this is so and issue a somewhat belated enforcement notice and put the argument about whether the 2nd condition was met back where it belongs: between UK Docks and the Council and not where it has been for 5 years; between the local residents who say it is too high and the Council who say it is not.

It will be their choice then between removing/rebuilding the shed to the approved plan (22m x 15.5m x 12.2m) with sloping sides or applying retrospectively for permission for what they now have (27.5m x 18.2m x 13.1m)

In both cases they will have conceded that we and not the Council were correct about the breaches in planning control but the second will additionally expose the Council, and quite justifiably, to charges of corruption and misleading the Local Government Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely
Michael Dawson

Posted in Misconduct | 1 Comment