Last night at Ealing Town Hall, Ealing Council's Planning Committee (comprising 13 councillors including Chair, Cllr. Karam Mohan) considered the Acton Hotel application. Many members found many faults in the planning application but, after 1½ hours of debate, instead of refusing it as the residents wished, decided at the last minute to merely defer it (after having 10 minutes earlier decided against a deferral!).The residents, who were given a mere 3 minutes to state their case at the start of the debate (insufficient for a major case like this with some 70 pages of planning report material from Mr Steve Austin who favours the developers' scheme in this suburban area next to Park View), will have to fight it all again and there's no guarantee that the same members of the Committee will be dealing with the application when it returns for a decision.The deeds of the open land where the 6-storey Hotel plus a huge sign above it and coach parking for 12m long vehicles are proposed, show that there are restrictions against erecting hotels on the land. These deed restrictions (restrictive covenants) are for the legal benefit of neighbouring homes and are separate to planning issues (although in New Zealand deed restrictions must be disclosed when planning applications are submitted under the RMA).The residents should, in my opinion, now raise the covenant issue with the developers using specialist solicitors and NOT rely on the planning system alone, which is rarely wholly satisfactory.A High Court Judge once said:- "It is fortunately still the law that people who have contracts are entitled to enforce them regardless of what local authorities think is suitable in terms of planning permission."Victor Mishiku 9/4/15vmfree@madasafish.com
Victor Mishiku ● 4171d