Council planners have used power to steamroll scheme
I read with total incredulity last week's Newmarket Journal report that Forest Heath Council's planning department has approved a conversion of the Newmarket Conservative Club building into a shop, restaurant and takeaway (and granted permission that could allow it to be used as a shop, pub, bank or building society).
Yet this application, good or bad, has never been discussed at any Forest Heath Council planning committee meeting where councillors can listen to objections from residents.
It has not even been approved by Rona Burt and Roger Dicker (chair and vice chair of the planning delegation panel), although neither are even Newmarket residents.
This prominent site in Newmarket has been approved by none other than planning officer Richard Plowman – the person recommending approval of the hideous four-storey ultra-modern and unwanted Premier Inn which, many of us believe, will be a blight on the historic town.
Shame on Forest Heath Council's planning department. It is obvious that the so-called delegated powers (which are meant to be used to approve non-contentious matters, like porches, conservatories, garages etc) have been used to deprive us of our democratic rights and steam roll through a matter which should have been discussed in public at a Forest Heath planning meeting.
No wonder last month's Newmarket Town Council public meeting proposed a vote of no confidence in the authority's planning department.
If anyone needed further evidence that Forest Heath's planning department is not acting in the best interests of the people of Newmarket, I believe this is it.
Fiona Unwin
The Old Rectory
Moulton
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Friday 25 May 2012
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