If you knew you were going to upset the company on whom you relied for your employment, you would probably think very carefully about it. You'd want to check and recheck your facts before you made waves. The last thing you'd want would be to create animosity on totally erroneous information. Were you to do so your credibility (and your job) would be in serious jeopardy.
Suppose... just suppose you went ahead with your controversial plan and when challenged insisted you had all the correct information. Let us assume your company subsequently carried out their own research and discovered the basis on which you based your case was entirely wrong.
They could come to only two conclusions i.e. you made a deliberate attempt to mislead the company or you are totally incompetent. Either way you have no future.
In January Cheshire East Council, knowing the distress it would cause to Handforth residents, announced plans to go ahead with a 'Garden Village' without any reference to local opinion.
Councillor Barry Burkhill said at the time: "This comes as a surprise to us all and has caused much upset to Handforth residents and the Neighbourhood Plan Team."
You really would want to be sure of your facts before causing that amount of distress in the community. CEC have enough resources and legal clout to check their position before announcing such controversial plans. Upsetting residents unnecessarily is not a recipe for creating goodwill.
Nevertheless CEC were adamant: "we are not proposing that the emerging Handforth neighbourhood plan covers this (Garden Village) site," was their unyielding response. They didn't actually say 'so up yours' but that was the general tenor.
The Handforth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (HNPSG) refused to capitulate and carried out their own research which proved that CEC's attempt to exclude the Garden Village from the Neighbourhood Plan was a breach of the regulations and therefore illegal.
"So, in light of this, we've reviewed the decision and can confirm that the whole of Handforth Parish, including the North Cheshire Garden Village, is now to be designated as the Handforth Neighbourhood Area," said CEC.
So what do you think? Did CEC make a deliberate attempt to mislead or are they simply incompetent?
Before you come to a conclusion consider the sequence of events at Lyme Green.
The parish council pointed out to CEC that illegal work was being carried out at Lyme Green. CEC made repeated denials sending representatives to parish meetings to assure residents this was not the case.
A vigilant local resident subsequently supplied the press with photographic evidence of work in progress before CEC finally admitted they were building a waste recycling plant on the site WITHOUT planning approval.
There followed a £500K independent inquiry much of which was redacted to ensure taxpayers did not have the full story.
So were CEC attempting to hoodwink the people of Handforth or were they just incompetent?
I shall leave it for you to decide.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of wilmslow.co.uk.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
As I commented separately, the stated purpose of a 'garden village' calls out for its inclusion in a neighbourhood plan. It seems to me that this is stunningly obvious. So it was just perceived expediency and an easier means to an end which led to the initial attempt to exclude it. It is only fortunate that this also turned out to be illegal, because otherwise where would we be?
It has tried at Handforth to hoodwink the locals, gerrymandering its arguments to get its own way knowing full well the extent of local opinion. Was it acting dishonestly? Citing ignorance of the law is not an excuse for questionable & unlawful behaviour.
Wilmslow has seen similar deceptions, moving the goalposts to suit the Council's duplicitous scheming to obtain the rigged results it wants. A prime example is the 10 hectares the council's Local Plan says it requires for new commercial development in the town (the LP time-span is from 2010 to 2030). The new Waters site commenced building in 2011 taking an additional 5.3 hectares of Green Belt. This left 4.7hs for all other commercial builds - Wilmslow Business Park at 5.3 hs & Royal London at 11.3 hs, both green belt sites.When Residents of Wilmslow pointed this out to the Council planners we were told that Waters' area would not be included within the 10 hs as "it was outside the LP period" At a later stage RoW again put the figures & dates to the the misnamed "Independent" planning inspector, only to be told the Council's argument will prevail. Makes one wonder?
The Council's political leadership and its supporters on the council, its officers and then the "independent" inspector have all colluded in this gross deception - in fact worse, I'd say deliberate untruths.
No wonder the public does not trust this Council or its paid (public?) servants.
As with Lyme Green, Handforth, Wilmslow's commercial green belt requirements, and probably numerous other instances across the borough, we see a ever growing record of questionable and incompetent officialdom.
The only answer is to vote these people out, right out, of office and jobs at the next election (and no contract cessation pay-offs for employees- we've been screwed enough!).
We've made a start in Wilmslow with Residents of Wilmslow's independent Cllr Toni Fox (Dean Row), following Handforth, Alderley Edge & Bollington's growing band of independent councillors.
By voting for more RoW independent minded people, not party fodder as we currently suffer, Wilmslow will only then have its voice heard.
Every election will count from now on in. Get the political flunkies (regardless of the colour of their rosetts) out of office ASAP.
Local, independant representation right up to county level is vital for the future otherwise the money grubbers, the unconcerned grifters will just go on shafting us ratepayers. They may claim to be public servants but they just don't rate your/our valuable support any longer - we could hardly do worse could we!
Adopt a long memory today and give local people the chance to do better - we all deserve it
Were it not for residents' reaction to Lyme Green and the so-called Farm Village CEC would have simply rolled over both communities.
The fact that both CEC decisions on the above were illegal would have gone unnoticed.
It appears the responsibility of Opposition rests with the public.
Our council, that includes the political leadership, its incompetent, duplicitous or worse, officers (especially those involved in planning & highways - I can only speak from experience), the Conservative councillors who do not have the nerve or abilities to stand up for their constituents, on pain of forfeiting council positions, have collectively and deliberately ignored public concerns with planning, have tried to blatantly manipulate those concerns by exclusions, misrepresentations and ignoring genuine views. The only "facts" they are collectively concerned with are their facts, just as they've tried to deceive Handforth.
Can these people, all of them, be trusted again?
I honestly think not.
Come the next round of CEC elections, 2019, RoW will certainly be making its presence with the voters known and hopefully felt at the ballot box. The ruling majority elite have proven to the electorate that they have deliberately failed the town, the area & the borough. The time for that clear-out is approaching.
Jackie, your answer to Simon's cry just about puts the cap on it all. We pay for their (fill in your own favourite reason). Shades of Lyme Green again.
As to "their legal advisors". They have a few "in-house" but like most local authorities virtually anything which they regard as "potentially difficult" is contracted out. They have a regular consortium firm which they use for a a great of things, but in the case of the Local Plan they "bought in" the QC from London. I suspect that they did not ask his advice on Handforth - they just thought they could get away with it.
How likely is that?
Of course CEC & its deliberately manipulative and its 5 star incompetent planning department that once again has attempted manipulate and deliberately distort the facts.
Once again!
One thing we can be sure of, Cheshire East will continue to distort everything it is involved with until there is a total clear-out of the current leadership, sycophantic councillors and officers who excel in misleading information.