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First – A letter to Head of Development Services about: i) using the shelter without doors, ii) the misuse of the complaints Procedure by the Case Officer and his Manager and iii) notice that UK Docks are still working on a development without planning permission.
Greens Place
South Shields
NE33 2AQ
2nd May 2014
Inappropriate Development on River Drive
Dear Mr Mansbridge,
I wrote to you on 4th April requesting that the work on the slipway shed on River Drive be stopped.
As an introduction I said:- “It a month since I sent Mr Atkinson an email on behalf of the residents affected by the redevelopment of the UK Docks site on River Drive and I have not received a satisfactory reply to the request that STC Planning Office meet with the residents to explain their action or rather lack of it over the slipway shed on River Drive. I am writing to you as I know Mr Atkinson is away and I know that you have been corresponding with another dissatisfied resident.”
After attempting to fill in some detail I finished by saying:- “I ask again that the working at UK Docks Slipway on River Drive be stopped until this issue is resolved.”
The slipway is back in use again with the with the arrival of the North Shields Ferry and I am writing to ask you if you have written as intended and here I quote the second to last paragraph in your letter to a Harbour View Resident dated 4th April:- “It is my intention to write formally to the operator instructing them that all operational works within the shelter should cease with immediate effect until such a time as the end panels are installed”
I will also ask at the same time that you do not refer this letter to one of your staff to raise a stage 1 complaint on my behalf. I understand you did this with my email of the 4th April which I take to be an abuse of the complaints procedure. If you had taken some care with the response to my email you will have seen that:-
1) in an email from your Principle Planning Officer, Mr Cunningham, dated 13th Jan 2014:- “May I therefore suggest that you speak with the Chair of the residents group in respect of the points that you have raised below, as these have already been discussed and explained. If you are still not satisfied with the Council’s response then you should use the Council’s complaints procedure which has 3 stages.”
2) in an email from your Planning Manager, Mr Atkinson, dated 28th Jan 2014:- “I can only suggest that if you do wish to pursue this matter further you ask that my Head of Service, George Mansbridge, responds to any remaining points you may have formally under stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure. You will have to write to him and say specifically what you remain unhappy about.”
If I had followed the suggestions by these officers there would have been no admission by the planning office that the slipway shed on River Drive had not been built to plan and it ill behoves you to refer my email to the formal complaints procedure as well .
Work continues in the slipway shed as I write this so if you have not written to the operator to stop, as you intended to, then please do so.
Yours sincerely
Michael Dawson
cc Residents
~ Hello Complaint No. 253539 ~
South Tyneside Council
Mr Dawson Date: 12th May 2014
Greens Place[1] Our Ref: GM/LB – 253539[2]
South Shields Your Ref:
Tyne and Wear NE33 2AQ
Dear Mr Dawson
Stage 2 Complaint
Thank you for your complaint, which we received on 8th May 2014[3].
I will now investigate your complaint and send you a response within 15 working days. If this is not possible I will let you know why and give you a date when I will be able to provide a full response.
If you have any questions about this letter, please contact me on (0191) 424 7566 or by email at george.mansbridge@southtyneside.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely
George Mansbridge
Head of Development Services
Ltr -12 05 14 – Mr Dawson (Stage 2 Acknowledgement Letter)
Town Hall & Civic Offices Telephone: 0191 427 7000
Westoe Road Fax No: 0191 27 7171
South Shields
Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL Website: www.southtyneside.info
1- I moved to Amble on 16th May and this can be confirmed by the Office of South Tyneside Council that handles Council Tax. I did not see this letter until the 9th of June when I visited my old home to collect any non-redirected mail. In that time:
2- a letter to correct details in the Council’s Response to the Petition had already been sent, see below.
3- a letter from Mr Mansbridge titled “STAGE 2 COMPLAINT – Development at UK Docks Ltd, River Drive” was redirected.
More. . . in part two of Reversion.
Third:- A letter to Mr Mansbridge to correct misinformation conveyed to Residents in his response to our Petition (including notice that UK Docks are still working on a development without planning permission).
Greens Place
South Shields
NE33 2AQ
9th May 2014
Development at UK Docks Ltd, River Drive
Dear Mr Mansbridge,
Thank you for the letter in response to all the various questions that have been raised with the Council in recent months, including a petition which many local residents have signed.
I would like to question your basic assumption in the letter:-
The approved dimensions of the steelwork are:
• Proposed height 15.5m at the River Drive end. The gradient of the slipway is 2.66m over
the length of the shelter. This would mean the height at the riverside end would be 18.16m
above the slipway;
• Proposed length 22m;
• Proposed width 12.2m.
This is not true, there is no supporting documentation which says that the approved height is 15.5m at the River Drive end[1]. All indications are that the approved height is 12.5m which one can get from scaling the portal details in the Drawing 8296/14[2].
In an email from Mr Atkinson dated 13th Feb he stated in paragraph 3 that the structure is not built to approved plans. While he goes on about the width being about 1m wider than planned he does not admit to the structure being 3m higher than planned.
Please examine again the plans that are held by your office and you will see that the elevation in the drawing 8296/14 is the north end and that scaling gives the elevation height to be 15.5m and subsequently the south elevation 12.5m[3].
If you have any problems with this than please provide the full frame drawing from which the elevation is taken[4].
In the light of this please consider a correction to the letters sent to the households 32 to 99 Greens Place and all the households in Harbour View [5].
I notice that work on the slipway continues apace – did you write as intended in your letter to the Householder in Harbour View, dated 4th April, to the operators instructing them that all operational works should cease with immediate effect until such a time that the end panels are installed?[6]
Yours sincerely
Michael Dawson
[1,2 & 3] – on the contrary the most reliable drawing has the river end as 15.5m not the River Drive end.
[4] – Sketch of full sized ‘rectangular’ shed, incorrectly labelled A2, viewed as ‘Approved plans Seen’ at Town Hall meeting which presumably accompanied 8296/14 when the Agent submitted drawings for the submission required by a condition of planning permission ST/0242/96/UD.
[5] – not done.
[6] – letter to Householder in Harbour View.
To Reversion – Part II . . . .