Councillors 'don't know vast area'

Apr 14 2009 by Dave Black, The Journal

FEARS have been voiced that contentious planning decisions on Northumberland's new super council will be taken by councillors who live too far away from the applications they are voting on.

The concerns follow the first-ever meeting of the unitary county council’s North Area Planning Committee, which covers a large geographical area stretching from Berwick to Morpeth.

Chartered accountant Brian Laidlaw has spoken out after the committee approved an application to build a large detached garage and workshop in the garden of a house in Oswald Road, Morpeth.

Mr Laidlaw, who lives in nearby Olympia Hill, was one of five local residents who objected to the application because of a loss of local amenity. Despite the application also being opposed by the committee’s two local councillors from Morpeth and Pegswood, it was approved on the casting vote of the chairman after being supported by members from Berwick, Shilbottle and elsewhere. A previous bid to build a house on the same plot was rejected last year.

Yesterday Mr Laidlaw said: “If this latest application had gone before Castle Morpeth Council I am convinced it would not have been approved. We now have councillors who live 50 miles away making decisions about Morpeth and I believe it results in a loss of local accountability and democracy. People with no vested interest in the local area are going to be making decisions on planning applications.”

Committee member Coun David Moore, who represents the Morpeth North ward, said he could understand Mr Laidlaw’s frustration as he was aware of the history of the site. “I could say it is the price of democracy.”

Committee chairman Coun John Taylor, who represents the Longhoughton ward near Alnwick, said: “There has been an argument put forward that local members should not determine planning applications relating to their own area, precisely because they have a vested interest in them.”