“One set of rules for the Planning Chair’s own ward in Bushey – Another set of rules for everywhere else”.

At last night’s Hertsmere Borough Council Planning Committee we saw rank Tory hypocrisy at its worst.

A strong turnout of Bushey residents were in the chamber opposing an outline application to build over 300 homes on Greenbelt land East of Little Bushey Lane.  They clearly had the support of Committee Members and there was an officer recommendation on the table to reject the application.

Unfortunately, because the application had not be tabled at the Committee within 13 weeks of its validation the developers had already launched an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate for non-determination.  This left the Council in a weaker position on the back foot.

Another out of the ordinary feature of this meeting was that a County Council Highways Officer was present.  A rare occurrence indeed.

Consideration of the application started with Committee Chair Cllr Linda Silver launching into a bizarre monologue in which she sought to excuse her lack of involvement up until that date based on risk of pre-determination. (There is, in fact, plenty of scope for Councillors to engage with residents without becoming predetermined.). Silver then continued to make an only partially coherent set of claims about government policy changes on greenbelt – none of which have actually happened.  In fact, what Silver was trying to do was to create a false excuse for the hypocrisy that was to follow.  The beleaguered Committee Chair went on to lecture the County Highways officer on what he was getting wrong in his assessment of this application.

Next up was a set piece performance by Tory Cllr Seamus Quilty in which he opposed the application but took the polar opposite position that he usually adopts when supporting building on Greenbelt land around Borehamwood.

Labour Leader Cllr Jeremy Newmark responded to Silver and Quilty by launching a full frontal assault on the Conservative pantomime being performed for the public gallery. Newmark highlighted Silver’s brazen hypocrisy in relation to Hertfordshire Highways.  He pointed out multiple applications over the past 8 years when opposition Councillors have challenged Highway assessments on applications to build on greenbelt around Borehamwood.  On every single occasion, as Chair, Cllr Silver hectored, barracked, shouted down and refused to entertain those challenges.  She singularly responded that Highways was a statutory consultee and that the Committee had no choice but to defer to their failed traffic models and preposterous assertions.  The contrast tonight, in front of her home crowd from Bushey, was stark.  By this point Silver was clearly worried that her attempt to put on a show was being derailed and she sought to silence Cllr Newmark and threatened to remove him from the meeting.  Cllr Newmark isn’t a stranger to the Tories trying to silence democracy and opposition.  He continued to firmly press his point despite the confrontational approach of the Chair.

Newmark moved on to challenge the fact that this application was now being determined on the back foot.  After the 13 week deadline had expired and after the developers had lodged their appeal.  He suggested that the application was so clearly non-compliant that as chair Silver should have ensured the application came to Committee in a more timely manner.  Newmark critiqued the seemingly passive response of waiting passively for responses to consultations rather than taking leadership and driving matters forward to put local residents in a more advantageous position.

This tipped the Chair over the edge.  After hectoring to the extent that Newmark was unable to finish a sentence she continued to play the role of the pantomime dame by adjourning the meeting and seeking to pass this off to residents as threatening the possibility of a decision being made. Pure nonsense of course.

After a short adjournment the debate continued.  As did the hypocrisy.  The Highways Officer was never asked to respond to questions from Labour members.  Nevertheless he was passed very similar questions from Conservative councillors.

Some opposition members were seen to sigh with disdain at the next piece of hypocrisy.  Some Tory committee members who, sitting on the ‘closed doors’ Planning Member Panel had, in recent years, supported this very same site being earmarked for development, were now champing at the bit to speak and vote against development on the very same site.  The difference?  This time the residents were here at could hold them to account.

As the matter came to the vote, Cllr Newmark proposed an amendment to strengthen the protection of the greenbelt even further.  He proposed adding that officers should be bound to defend the position “vigorously and robustly”.  Silver assured him that this would be the case.  The amendment was accepted.  In asking for this Newmark highlighted a final, stunning piece of Tory hypocrisy.  He recalled how in some earlier appeal cases the Council had singularly failed to mount a proper robust defence.  Unsurprisingly, those examples didn’t relate to applications to develop sites in Cllr Silver’s own patch.

The pantomime wasn’t over yet though.  Tory Cllr Choudhury was the first to be called upon to vote. Unable to simply copy his colleagues he got it wrong and managed to accidentally vote against the rejection of the application.  Thankfully Labour Cllrs Gray and Newmark were feeling charitable and helped him to correct this error.

So, another Hertsmere Planning Committee meeting.  Another Tory chair picking and choosing who gets to participate in democratic debate.  An array of examples of rank Tory lies and hypocrisy.  For the past eight years, Labour Councillors have tirelessly pointed out how greenbelt in Tory Bushey and Radlett is valued more that greenbelt in and around Borehamwood.  Tonight was just one example.  The treatment of the former Bushey Golf and Country Club site is another.

Labour Councillors value all greenbelt.  They’ve made a clear manifesto commitment to safeguard 99% of it all over the Borough.  Regardless of the political makeup of the area concerned.  It’s time to bring openness, honesty and genuine accountability back to our planning system.  It’s time to end the pantomime.

Planning Watch is an occasional serious of videos and blogs produced by Hertsmere Labour Party highlighting abuse of the planning system in Hertsmere