Phoenix Barn Swithland

 

 

THIS IS A COPY OF THE EMAIL SENT TO THE COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT OF CHARNWOOD BOROUGH COUNCIL ON THE 9TH SEPTEMBER 2009.

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To : Corporate Service Development Officer

Charnwood Borough Council

Council Offices
Southfield Road
Loughborough
LE11 2TX

 

From : Mr Charles White

Six Acres, No.17 The Ridgeway

Rothley, Leicestershire, LE7 7LE

Tel ( 0116 ) 2302212 or ( 01509 ) 262900 

 

Hardcopy by POST

 

 

Dear Sir / Madam
 

I wish to follow up on a complaint I made to Helen Robinson of the Planning Enforcement Department on the 14th November 2008. Since my complaint to Helen Robinson, the matter has not been dealt with by Charnwood Borough Council. The seriousness of this complaint means that I will have no choice but to report the matter to the Independent Local Authority Ombudsman if the complaint is not resolved in a fair and amicable way and within a timely fashion.

 

In essence, we were given the go ahead to build a stone barn in Swithland Village by Charnwood Borough Council in 2004. We submitted plans which were approved. Then in November 2008, the Council demanded that we pull the barn down. When I telephoned Helen Robinson I told her that I wished to complain about what had gone on and wanted a full explanation as to why the Council would give us their approvals to build the barn and later when the barn was built demand we pull it down. Helen Robinson could offer no explanation and my complaint was not progressed through the Council.

 

We appealed against the enforcement notice and we lost the appeal. The inspectorate did not take into account the shoddy way in which the Council had dealt with our planning affairs which clearly was quite a separate issue to the planning opinions that were given in the inspectorates report. The Inspectorate's report can be downloaded here

 

Below is a detailed case summary with links to various copy letters and documents.

 

On the 13th November 2008, Charnwood Borough Council issued an enforcement notice against Phoenix Barn on land at Swithland Agricultural Holdings in Swithland.

The barn was nearing completion after a progressive 5 year construction period.

 

 

The barn shown above at the time of enforcement

The following report takes you through the planning affairs.

(1)    We put in our Planning Determination forms to the Council on the 28th January 2004 together with the planning fees.

(2)    The Council had a duty to approve or otherwise request further information within 28 days of receipt of the application. By law, if the Council had not responded to us within 28 days, we were entitled to proceed with what had been advised.

(3)    28 days went by and we heard nothing from the Council. We waited several more weeks. We telephoned the Council in late March for a receipt for our application. The receipt arrived on the 24th March. 

(4)    On the same day we received a letter from the Council asking for further information about the proposed development. The letter was dated the 9th February. We were baffled as to why the Council would suddenly send us a request for more information more than 7 weeks after we had put in the application forms. 

We suspect that the Council may have forgotten to deal with our application and upon realising that they had messed up the application then tried to cover up their mistake by sending out the backdated letter of the 9th February.

The actual letter we received is shown below on the left.

The Council letter that we received on the 24th March ( shown further below on the left  ) clearly showed our address typed as 54 Woodland Drive, Leicester. The date on the letter was also clearly typed as the 9th February 2004 and signed by Miss S Cliff.

 

In Helen Robinson’s statement of evidence at the appeal enquiry Helen stated that the letter sent out on the 22nd March had hand written changes made to the original letter that was supposed to have been sent out on the 9th February. This is fundamentally untrue and a blatant fabrication of the truth as can be seen from the actual letter we received that has no handwriting changes made to it. ( See below section 3.6 the statement made by Helen Robinson ) :

 

 

 

 

 

 



 click to enlarge
 

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The above actual letter is the letter we received on the 24th March 2004. It came in the below envelope stamped the 22nd March and sent second class mail. Note the date on the letter is the 9th February.  

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The Council later uploaded a letter onto their planning portal which was also submitted during the appeal public enquiry as shown above right.

The letter strangely shows the address as 52 Woodland Drive in typeface crossed out and changed to 54 in handwriting. The date has also been changed from the 9th February to the 22nd March.

The general formatting of the letter is different as well as can be seen in the final paragraph and also the position of the postcode. Helen Robinson’s evidence statement 3.6 is further proof that maladministration has taken place. 

 

After receiving the letter on the 24th March 2004 ( above left ) we naturally suspected that the Council had attempted a "cover up" of maladministration of the application and asked our solicitor to send a formal letter to the Council advising that since the 28 days had elapsed and we had heard nothing from the Council then we would proceed with the development as advised.  Our solicitors letter can be seen here.

(5)  On the 5th April 2004 Mrs Helen Robinson, a senior planning officer of the Council sent a reply to our solicitors letter. Helen Robinson's letter ( below ) clearly shows that we had been given the green light to proceed with the development.

Note :

Helen Robinson’s statement of evidence 3.8 from the Public Enquiry ( below ) admits that she had written letters giving the green light to proceed with the development and that she now knows that she should not have given the green light to proceed. 

 

 

   

(6)    Following receipt of the above letter, we instructed an architect to submit the formal drawings to the Council for their approval. Groundworks commenced in June 2004. 

In 2006, the Council having seen the detailed plans issued building regulations approval. ( See below ) :

(7)   In the summer of 2007, Helen Robinson visited our farm and raised some concerns over the intricate design of the barn, (more than three years after the original planning approvals had been granted). It was discovered that the building length according to the detailed plans was slightly longer than what had been agreed on the original application forms although the total square footage was within the tolerances of the original application. Following discussions with the Council it was agreed that we would not build the sleeping quarters into the barn and that we would reduce the length of the barn to that specified in the original application. In making this agreement, the Council allowed us to proceed with the building works. Helen Robinson even commended us on our choice of materials. 

 

Not only in the summer of 2007 did Helen Robinson visit our farm and inspect the building under construction, but she also visited the farm again on the 16th January 2008 to inspect the building to make sure the development was in accordance with the plans submitted. See 5.8 and 6.3 of Helen Robinson’s statement of evidence from the public enquiry below.

 

 

See below Helen Robinson’s letter of the 23rd July 2007. Helen Robinson has omitted from her evidence that she had again given us approval to proceed with construction. It is a fact that the Council had approved the design, siting, appearance, size and materials of the barn after extensive discussions and a number of site visits. At all times we cooperated very well with Helen Robinson. 

 

 

(8)   In November 2008 at the time when the slate roof was being installed we received an enforcement notice completely out of the blue. We telephoned Helen Robinson at the Council and asked for an explanation as to what was going on and complained about the shoddy way in which we had ben treated and our case handled. Helen Robinson could offer no comment.

(9)    The matter went to appeal, and the Inspectorate found in favour of the Councils enforcement decision. The inspectorate did not take into account the way in which the Council had shoddily handled our planning matters as such a matter is not the concern of a Planning Inspector.

As it was, the Council granted their consent for the construction of the barn and had fully approved the siting, design, location, size, appearance and materials of the barn. Knowing full well what was going to be put up, knowing exactly what the building would look like and having given all consents, it is unfair that the Council 5 years later suddenly tell us to pull it down. This is a serious case of Council maladministration. Even the Inspectorate pointed out in his appeal decision summary that the Council had given us the go ahead to build the barn and that the barn that had been built was in accordance with what we had submitted on our application forms. (see below Point 9 of the Inspectorate’s Appeal report):

Summary

It is devastating that the Council approved the development including the detailed plans and yet once built changed their minds demanding the barns total demolition. There is no justice in what has happened. The Council must be well aware that a massive amount of maladministration has taken place and that if the barn is demolished then the Council will be responsible for the entire costs associated with the barn development. That will be a bill in the region of £400,000 and costs are escalating on a daily basis. 

In Helen Robinson's statement of evidence provided at the appeal Public Enquiry, Helen Robinson admitted that she was wrong in writing the above letters. That however is no consolation to us as we built the barn in good faith in accordance with all the approvals given by the Council.

We would like this matter of very serious maladministration investigated without delay, and the demolition order that is currently on the barn to be suspended until the matter has been properly investigated by your authority and if not to our satisfaction to be investigated by the Independent Local Authority Ombudsman. Time is of the essence as the demolition order must be complied with before the 25th April 2010.

We are looking for a resolution to this matter that will be amicable with the Council and ourselves. We need our barn to operate our farming business. Without the barn, we have no chance to develop our business. We know there has been massive Council maladministration and if the barn does come down, our business will be finished. We are prepared to negotiate modifications to the barn and the costs of those modifications to be paid for by the Council. Alternatively, we are prepared to accept that the Council pay all our costs so far including but not limited to :

Initial planning fees, architects fees, building regulation fees, surveyor’s fees, all construction costs, appeal costs, demolition costs and loss of business profit. We would also look for compensation for stress, ( I have recently had to go into hospital for an MRI scan for suspected stroke caused by the stress of this case that has lead to weakness in my right arm, pain in my neck, right shoulder and numbness in my right hand ) and for compensation for time spent dealing with all the trouble of this case and other related expenses. 

Finally, at the point of the enforcement notice being issued, the slate was being laid on the roof as we had already signed the roofing slate contract and the barn doors had already been manufactured and a contract signed for their installation. We had machinery sitting in Loughborough being delivered in a matter of just a few weeks with nowhere else to store it.

 

We had little option but to complete the roof and doors so that we had a safe and secure place for our machinery to be stored and to prevent being liable for contract of works not being fulfilled by the building contractors.

Due to the seriousness of this matter of maladministration, I have copied this email to every member of the Charnwood Borough Council Plans Committee, our solicitor, local Councilors, Local and national press, the BBC and other parties that may assist in getting public support against this case of maladministration.

Below are a few pictures of the barn.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

Charles White

 

 

 

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