VICTORY: Our Campaign Forces Mendip District Council To Change How They Make Planning Decisions

 

Dodgy Decisions and Corrupt Practises

After a long battle and campaign, Somerset Independents has succeeded in forcing Mendip District Council (MDC) to change how it makes planning decisions. But MDC did not want to change.

The changes were finally agreed by councillors at Full Council during late 2021, but our campaign started when Somerset Independents was formed in March 2020. Our first victory occurred in June 2020, as described in this article here.

Even after our successful campaign, Planning Team Leader Rachel Tadman described the changes to the Constitution to councillors as a "tidying up" exercise at the September 2021 Full Council meeting. You can hear what she said in the recording. As we have pointed out to Ms Tadman is itself, her claim is untrue. It is a victory for residents and for good governance.

We are pleased that these changes have been made, but how many decisions were made that have affected residents lives, in between March 2020 and when the changes were belatedly made? A lot of decisions and a lot of lives. How much have councillors got away with during this time? Too much, we feel.

Why Did We Campaign For The Changes?

We felt that one of the reasons that we had to form Somerset Independents was because of how planning decisions were made by Mendip District Council.

Somerset Independents was formed to stand up for residents, and MDC just was not listening to residents.

So during 2020 and 2021, both co-founders of Somerset Independents, Denise Wyatt and Andrew Pope, put pressure on MDC as part of the campaign.

Denise Wyatt

Andrew Pope

Denise and Andrew spoke at MDC "virtual" meetings to ask councillors to change their Constitution. We wrote to them, cajoled them, and we asked them nicely. 

 

We Listened to Somerset residents and Acted for Residents

We did everything that we could to ensure that the Seven Principles of Public Life, the Nolan Principles, were followed, that proper practises and that due governance for planning were followed too.

But councillors did not want to listen. Some of these councillors were engaging in corrupt practises. Cabinet members and the Leader of the Council sat on the Planning Board.

And officers did not want to listen either. Their failed governance being led by the councillors over many years and successive Administrations of MDC - Lib Dem and Tory.

Councillors interrupted us. Councillors tried to ignore us. We carried on.

 

Councillors and Officers Did Not Want To Change

MDC continued to ignore the right way of making decisions, as recommended by the Local Government Association.

MDC was making decisions that affected residents' lives, but was not listening to residents when they spoke at planning meetings. 

MDC councillors and officers just pretended to listen.

One of the worst examples of this was when Andrew Pope spoke at the July 2020 Planning Board, to speak against Councillor Philip Ham's Sandys Hill Lane development in Frome. Councillors pretended that they did not have a conflict of interest, and approved Councillor Ham's application. Our article on what happened is at the link here. 

Councillors on the Planning Board also approved the widely-hated Saxonvale proposal, also in Frome. This was despite huge objections from residents and organisations.

These are just two examples. There are many more examples.

 

We Won and Residents Won

Somerset Independents listened to residents and acted for them and acted with them, because it was clear that MDC was not listening to residents. Why? Because:

1. It was clear that there were corrupt practises in MDC planning, such as with the Sandys Hill Lane application, where we have shown that Councillor Ham lobbied other councillors, abusing his own position as councillor to further his land ownership and planning application. Cllr Ham's actions were reported by us and by Private Eye - as we show here.
   
2. It was clear that there was incompetence by councillors on MDC's Planning Board, with councillors not knowing how things work, but still voting applications through. 
3. It was clear that there was poor governance and inconsistent processes in MDC planning. Some applications would be done properly while others were not done properly. Being a councillor and a development agent was allowed by MDC, as we described in this article here.
4. It was clear that the Nolan Principles were irrelevant to MDC planning.
   

Leader of the Council Councillor Ros Wyke was repeatedly claiming that her Council was "open and transparent", but MDC planning was anything but open or transparent.

MDC allowed the above bad practises to continue, so Somerset Independents pointed out that other councils do not allow them.

We stand up for residents. That we stand up for residents is written in the Constitution of Somerset Independents. We are watching MDC to see if they will keep their promises.

 

UPDATE (6/7/22): Somerset Independents On Somerset Businesses: Repeat Environmental Offender Alvis Brothers at Lye Cross Farm

Alvis Brothers Ltd
Repeat Environmental Offenders

UPDATE (6/7/22)

We have repeatedly asked for a response, but have received none.

---

We will praise Somerset businesses when they are good employers, genuinely look after our wonderful County and enhance the reputation of Somerset.

And we will expose Somerset businesses when they do not, and particularly when they carry out "greenwash" to launder their image. We often find that companies that are too eager to make claims about their environmental credentials, are trying to hide something (e.g. see our reports on Wyke Farms, another "family-owned" business that claims to be "100% Green").

So we were disturbed to hear of Lye Cross Farm near Cheddar being prosecuted at Bristol Magistrates Court, which we were alerted to thanks to a report by The Leveller.

The company is Alvis Brothers Limited, who were fined £29,000 for repeated pollution incidents, after repeated visits by the Environment Agency. Apparently, says The Leveller:

"Offenders had not had as many slaps across the hand from the Environment Agency as in this case."

According to the Govwire website:

"Alvis Brothers Ltd have a long history of environmental offending, having previously received a formal caution and warning letters from the Environment Agency."

So we checked.

It turns out that like Wyke Farms, Alvis are repeat environmental offenders. And the dialogue between the Environment Agency and Alvis remained hidden until the court case. 

We believe that environmental pollution should be made public by default.

But too much pollution is hidden. And the Environment Agency do not publish their reports.

With Wyke Farms, Somerset Independents had to use Freedom of Information requests to find out what Wyke Farms had been up to, and the dialogue remained hidden until we had exposed it and reported on it.

So what of Alvis and Lye Cross Farm? On their website, they make much noise about "The Environment - Farming Responsibly". They claim that:

"The Alvis family cherish this area of outstanding natural beauty."

Really? According to Government records, Alvis were also prosecuted at the same Magistrates Court in 2014, and fined £16,000 under "EPR 2016 Regulation 38(1)(a)".

On the Alvis website, they also claim:

"Each system under Alvis management aims to protect and value wildlife and the environment by encouraging diverse habitat and the utilisation of animal manure and by crop rotation."

Their claims are difficult to reconcile with the successful prosecutions in court. Both prosecutions relate to pollution of the very environment that they claim to "cherish".

They also claim that:

"Other environmental measures include the creation and renovation of ponds and tributaries flowing into the River Yeo."

Yet they have polluted local waterways in repeated pollution incidents.

In the latest incident, the Govwire website stated that:

"Assessments by the Environment Agency the following week found a chronic impact on the aquatic invertebrates living downstream of the farm, whilst sensitive species, indicating a good water quality, were only found upstream."

The original article on Gov.uk stated that the offences were:

"Causing an unpermitted water discharge activity, namely the discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter on and before 28 June 2019 from Lye Cross Farm, Redhill, Bristol into inland fresh waters contrary to Regulations 12(1)(b) and Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Fine £22,000.00

Causing an unpermitted water discharge activity, namely the discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter on and before 18 September 2019 from Lye Cross Farm, Redhill, Bristol into inland fresh waters contrary to Regulations 12(1)(b) and Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Fine £ 7,000.00

Costs £ 8,003.02

Victim surcharge £ 181.00"

We will be asking Alvis Brothers to respond. We contacted Lye Cross Farm by email but they have not responded.

Standing Up For Somerset's Environment