shoddycollins
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2015
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- 11,512
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- Location
- In the managerless wonderland
- Supports
- Carlisle United
I'd be surprised if Vince didn't appeal. He's maybe feeling a bit upset at the moment, but his planning consultants will no doubt have advised him to appeal. It was recommended to be approved by the council planning department and only lost by three votes, it then took the council an hour and a half to decide what reasons they had given for refusal.
Planning officers, if they anticipate there might be reasonable grounds for refusal will prepare these in advance so if the councillors do vote against the scheme, they can give a reason. Sounds like there was no sound reason to refuse permission and they really struggled to come up with one after the fact ending up with something that looks vague (lack of community benefit?) and that they would struggle to defend in an appeal.
This sort of stuff happens all the time and 9 times out of 10 it is granted on appeal with costs awarded against the council for failing to adequately justify why they turned it down. Almost all the work has already been done for FGR by Stroud's own planning officers in their report recommending approval so it shouldn't be overly stressful a process for Vince, he just has to be patient.
Hope he wins anyway. Not for FGR's sake per se, just because I used to work in planning and it's nice to see someone getting one over on some of the tinpot Napoleons that sit on planning committees and like to stamp over people's dreams just because they think that being a councillor means they can make important decisions on a personal whim. If he gets costs awarded then the local paper will get to run a lovely story on how much taxpayer's money they're wasting.
Planning officers, if they anticipate there might be reasonable grounds for refusal will prepare these in advance so if the councillors do vote against the scheme, they can give a reason. Sounds like there was no sound reason to refuse permission and they really struggled to come up with one after the fact ending up with something that looks vague (lack of community benefit?) and that they would struggle to defend in an appeal.
This sort of stuff happens all the time and 9 times out of 10 it is granted on appeal with costs awarded against the council for failing to adequately justify why they turned it down. Almost all the work has already been done for FGR by Stroud's own planning officers in their report recommending approval so it shouldn't be overly stressful a process for Vince, he just has to be patient.
Hope he wins anyway. Not for FGR's sake per se, just because I used to work in planning and it's nice to see someone getting one over on some of the tinpot Napoleons that sit on planning committees and like to stamp over people's dreams just because they think that being a councillor means they can make important decisions on a personal whim. If he gets costs awarded then the local paper will get to run a lovely story on how much taxpayer's money they're wasting.
