Some may remember with fondness (as I do) the good intentions expressed by Cllr. John Cudmore in May 1994 in the Labour Party's Manifesto in respect of planning that:"COUNCIL PLANNERS WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES" "PLANNING DECISIONS MUST TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE FEELINGS OF LOCAL PEOPLE"and for a while, this was indeed so.Cllr. John Delaney's Committee rejected many back garden type developments and unsuitable schemes.Things have slipped badly in recent times with the Ealing planners recommending the 8 Houses backland development adjacent to Springfield Gardens Park (a Judicial Review Hearing may be taking place on 28th September 2001), the 4 buildings and car-stacking machinery development at 91 Shakespeare Road and the latest upset, the application to convert two non-adjoining semi-detached houses in Friars Place Lane into Ex-Offenders, Drug Addicts, Sex Workers and Mental Patients Hostel with a temporary accommndation unit plus a back garden Nursery Building for 10 Children both staffed 24 Hours a day, 365 days a year in two houses that are semi-detached to two private family homes.Despite over 2,000 objections from the local residents and in two of the cases also schoolteachers, parents and pupils from local schools, the Planning Department case officers have in each of the three cases above-mentioned brushed aside the valid objections of neighbours and fully recommended each of the 3 schemes to the Planning Committee.In all cases, irregularities and false information have featured in the conduct of the cases.In the Springfield Gardens case "Trevenna Cottage" (the home of the Athawes family - the well-known auctioneers from the 1860s), we helped fight off a whole succession of unsuitable developments from 1995 onwards when the many applications were all refused with appeals dismissed.By one single casting vote of the Chair, Cllr. Ray Wall, the Committee - but only in the absence of the voting member of the Committee from Acton, the latest scheme scraped through earlier this year and then only after the developers "planted 60 leylandii-type trees" as a "gift" in our Park (so as to hide the upcoming development telling the gullible Parks Department that the trees were urgently needed to prevent a football going over the fence and disturbing the "tenants" (including the developers' workman) of the house that they intended to see demolished.Professor Clara Lowy of Rosemont Road can give you chapter and verse on this "Trojan Horse" operation.The "hiding" of the plot at No.2 Creswick Road was contrary to the Council's UDP Policy 3.4.1 on Public Open Space which requires retention of the "open character" of the Park's boundary. The developers put up the 60 trees and then appear to have persuaded Cllr. Ray Wall that the development could barely be seen behind them - hence his casting vote to destroy this lovely 84 year-old cottage and inflict a backland development so cramped that the developers plans to Committee involved Fire Brigade engines shearing off people's front doors as they opened them to leave the intended houses and running them over!Now, because of the uproar (two whole pages of the "Ealing & Acton Gazette" publishing letters condemning the planning decision) and court case over that outrage, we have two Acton councillors, but once again, neither of them was selected to vote on the Committee on 7th September 2011 when the application was recommended by case officer Mr Andrew Vaughan for full planning permission (despite forged Ownership Certificate Notices, missing and totally inadequate Plans and over 1,100 objections).The Head of Planning was overruled by the Council's own Legal Department after we had continued to insist that the Council observe the law resulting in the Application finally being declared "Invalid" on 5th September 2011.The campaign to stop this development continues by the use of the restrictive covenants burdening the land at Nos. 53 and 55 Friars Place Lane - please see the adjacent topic "Acton Residents - Unrepresented Again!!" on this Forum.I wish Mr Mark Deitch and all the Shakespeare Road residents good luck in protecting their beloved corner of Acton and the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young's old HQ!Victor Mishiku 11/9/11"The Covenant Movement"PS. There remains a covenant issue in that the Acton Council imposed a restrictive covenant on a portion of Mrs Athawes's garden that would prevent the development going ahead. The developers stand to make £4 Million profit from the destruction of "Trevenna Cottage" - on the same night, the Council was agonising which Libraries to close down, the question of what the Council will do re. the covenant arose. The covenant is an asset that the Council can either preserve and enforce to stop the development complained of proceeding (the demolition of the cottage is not a breach in itself but the development would be in that the land would not be part of a single garden to a private family home) or sell that asset for say 50% of the development profit, namely £2 Million.That issue is also still pending.
Victor Mishiku ● 5485d