Saxonvale Frome - Mendip Councillors Ignore 258 Objections And Approve It!

Mendip Councillors Ignores Residents AGAIN

 

258 Written Objections were lodged to the dreadful and hated Saxonvale planning application.

Yet at Thursday's Planning Board, Mendip councillors ignored those 258 objections to somehow APPROVE the scheme.

In fact, they did worse than approve the scheme. They delegated to officers to finish it off, behind closed doors.

After the meeting, a member of the public told us, when commenting on our article on Mendip being reported in Private Eye:

"MDC Planning Board voted against allowing more voices to be heard last night at the Board meeting on the proposed Saxonvale development in Frome. Despite strong opposition from local bodies & residents the Planning Board gave approval for the current proposals."

Somerset Independents objected to the application, with Andrew Pope also speaking on behalf of Somerset Independents and all 258 objectors at the virtual meeting. Andrew mentioned that Mendip Council "love to do things behind closed doors". Some of Andrew's speech was reported by SomersetLive reporter Daniel Mumby on Twitter and in the article here.

None of the detail will be agreed in public. It will be done behind closed doors under so-called "reserved matters" and a "Section 106 Agreement". Mendip Council spends your money and does not listen to you. We've said it before and we say it again. The evidence is huge.

Responding to us, their legal officer even tried to infer openness and transparency by saying the agreement would be publicised. He did not mention that reserved matters and Section 106 Agreements are done by officers, not residents, and councillors are ignored by Mendip District Council. So it will all be done behind closed doors. We have an email from a Mendip council officer confirming that reserved matters do not involve consultation of the public.

Denise Wyatt also spoke at the meeting, to remind Mendip District Council that Somerset Independents has already, on several occasions, pointed out the failings of Mendip to listen to the public and to allow the public to have their say, and then for the Council to ACT on what the public tells them. Daniel Mumby also reported on what Denise said.

Denise Wyatt, Nominations Officer
and Expert on Council Governance

But of course, just like all the other times, they tried to ignore us. It doesn't work. And others, both locally and nationally, agree with us about Mendip's failings.

Since we pointed out Mendip's failings last year, now the Local Government Association (only now being consulted by the Chief Executive after the Council's Cabinet Member for Finance Councillor Barry O'Leary and the previous Chief Finance (S151) Officer were humiliated by our investigations into Mendip's accounts), Ernst and Young, local residents worried about developments like Saxonvale, Easthill, Sandys Hill Lane, Selwood Gardens, Coleford, and now Private Eye magazine, have all pointed out the failings in Mendip District Council and its councillors.

Denise also reminded the 14 councillors on the Planning Board that it is a huge conflict of interest to allow Cabinet members who have already been doing deals behind closed doors with developers, to ALSO vote on the planning application. Yet she was ignored - 3 Cabinet members voted for Saxonvale.

Both Denise's and Andrew's speeches provoked responses from officers during the meeting, who made laughable defences of Mendip District Council. But as Andrew said in his speech, Mendip is already under investigation by Ernst and Young.

Yet Mendip councillors STILL ignored the 258 objections.

11 councillors on the Planning Board voted for the application. All of them were Liberal Democrat or Conservative councillors.

3 councillors on the Planning Board voted against approving the application. They were all Green councillors.

The two ward councillors spoke against the application. They are both Green too.

Andrew Pope says:

Andrew Pope,
Leader of Somerset Independents

 

"Like we say regularly, Lib Dem, Green or Tory, same old story.

They tried to tell everyone that the Planning Board is not party political. Yet they all voted with their political groups - WHAT A COINCIDENCE!

What opposition was there? The Green councillors were pathetic on the Planning Board. They don't know what they are doing, despite having been on there for nearly two years. And the two ward councillors were similarly weak.

When you have a campaigner for the legalisation of drugs as your Group Leader, Green Councillor Shane Collins, and there have been dodgy deals between the Lib Dems and Greens behind closed doors, it is perhaps unsurprising that the councillors are rubbish at providing opposition.

Somerset Independents has consistently spoken up for residents, and has done so again. These national party politicians from the Lib Dems, Tories or Greens cannot be relied upon to stand up for residents.

Because they don't even listen to residents in the first place! They ignore residents instead.

I spent a very long time and went through all of the objections and tried to represent them in the paltry three minutes that I was given by the Lib Dem Chair Damon Hooton, who interrupted me more than once. Other councillors also interrupted and tried to prevent me from speaking.

It was shameful that Mendip councillors did not take our advice, last year, to change the Constitution, to allow more time for public speaking. I asked Damon Hooton again, prior to the meeting, but the Chair claimed to not know that I was speaking. Can you believe it, because I don't?

 And then, when given the opportunity to vote on whether to allow more public speaking time, the councillors voted AGAINST doing so! What a shower!

Denise Wyatt, who is the Nominations Officer for Somerset Independents, says:

"Somerset Independents was formed to stand up for residents. Our profile is growing and we are helping residents in Frome, and also in other parts of Somerset. We've already won campaigns with residents and we will continue to grow throughout 2021. Join us to fight back against the national political parties who put themselves and their party ahead of residents."

Putting Residents First