Us councillors could not have done more (From Halesowen News)

Us councillors could not have done more

2:20pm Tuesday 16th June 2009

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From the first time that I met him in March 2008, Mr Roberts made it abundantly clear that he did not believe that any member of the Conservative Party would help him and the Friends of the Coombeswood Green Wedge fight St Modwen's planning application to build on the Wedge. Despite this attitude the Halesowen North councillors worked with him, other group members and countless local residents to vigorously contest the planning application. We attended meetings with the Friends, put them in touch with other interested groups, provided them with advice on how to fight the proposals, raised the campaign's profile through our newsletters, submitted detailed objection letters, encouraged residents to submit objections, and helped with path clearance and litter-picking. I don't think there is anything else we could have done to help, and we were all bitterly disappointed when the planning application was approved.

Dudley Council's Development Control Committee made it clear that they viewed the application with distaste. However, the present government has so framed the planning laws that, had the Committee followed its heart and rejected the development, St Modwen would almost certainly have had its proposals upheld on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol. It was for this reason only that the Committee very reluctantly approved those plans (albeit with two Conservative members voting against them). The Committee has bravely stood up for its residents' interests in the past, only to have the Planning Inspectorate overturn its decisions and award costs against the council running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Therefore, councillors on the Committee would have been only too aware that there is a limit to how far they can keep trying to make a point when doing so will cost local taxpayers serious money, for no gain. Along with James Morris - the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Halesowen & Rowley Regis - I believe that the lack of devolved powers for Development Control committees, and the lack of an appeal process is fundamentally wrong, and James has committed to tackle this issue if elected to Parliament.

I am disappointed that rather than thanking us for our efforts (however grudgingly), Mr Roberts decided to launch extensive attacks on us through your letters pages, and the comments section of your website. He is clearly not enamoured by James Morris (Letters, June 4th), although the need for him to pen two letters in as many months informing readers of this aversion probably tells us more about his particular obsessions than it does about James's supposed omissions. If Mr Roberts had read James Morris's webpage properly he would see that, far from "needing an A-Z to navigate around his constituency", James has strong local roots; both his parents and grandparents are Black Country folk. Yes, like many successful people, James has lived and worked in London, but so what; our current MP hails from North Wales. And far from having his head in the clouds as a "professional think-tank boffin" James Morris possesses plenty of experience of the real world acquired through the small businesses he successfully founded and run, as well as the young family he is raising.

So, rather than mocking James Morris and attacking the people who fought the plans in every way possible, if Mr Roberts wants to carry on his fight to protect our open spaces he should instead rally to James and to a Conservative Party that (to quote its website) is committed to "shifting decision-making away from central government" and to enabling local people "to decide where new homes should go, instead of... letting unelected quangos impose unsustainable development on (their) communities".

Jeff Hill, Conservative Councillor for Halesowen North

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