How was the planning application (APP/17/00306) for a fire station in Saughall Massie decided?

Edited 21.7.17 by JB to include contact details of National Planning Casework Unit and video clip part 2

Edited 23.7.17 by JB to include video clips part 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

Edited 24.7.17 by JB to include video clips 8, 9 and 10

Edited 26.7.17 by JB to include published video clips

Yesterday evening a large number of people waited in the Civic Hall for Wirral Council’s Planning Committee’s decision on planning application APP/17/00306 (for a fire station with a training tower, drill yard and car park on Wirral Council owned land in Saughall Massie in the greenbelt).

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 1 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 2 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 3 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 4 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 5 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 6 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 7 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 8 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 9 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 10 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 11 of 17

You can watch the end of that agenda item in the video below (including the two votes on refusal and a third vote on approval) or how that item started in the first video clip above.

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 12 of 17

Planning Committee (Wirral Council) 21st July 2017 Part 13 of 17

Both votes for refusal were lost (6:7). An extra condition for a construction management plan was then added by councillors.

At least one councillor then got confused and thought they were voting on the condition (rather than approval with an extra condition) and the final vote for approval with the extra condition was 9:4.

However Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service don’t get to start building a new fire station immediately as there are still some arcane hoops for this planning application to jump through before that happens.

It could be a while before they have permission to do so as the matter has to be referred to a government minister first (Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP to see if he wishes to call in the planning application decision. His contact details are sajid.javid.mp@parliament.uk or Department for Communities and Local Government, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF. Alternatively you can contact The National Planning Casework Unit, 5 St Philips Place, Colmore Row, Birmingham, B3 2PW. Their phone number is 0303 444 8050 and their email address is npcu@communities.gsi.gov.uk

One of those who voted twice against refusal and in favour of this application is Cllr Steve Foulkes (who is Vice-Chair of the Planning Committee). Cllr Steve Foulkes is also a director of Wirral Partnership Homes Limited.

Wirral Partnership Homes Limited own the sheltered accommodation adjoining this site and this very sheltered accommodation was given as one of the reasons in the votes for refusal.

However I shouldn’t just single out Cllr Foulkes for criticism. Wirral Council also owns the land (the value of it will if planning permission is given go from £NIL to £300,000 (at 2014 prices)) as a result of the decision by Wirral Council’s Planning Committee.

None of the 13 councillors (of four different political parties) on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee that evening declared a prejudicial financial interest in the outcome or to my knowledge received a dispensation from Wirral Council’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee to vote in this matter.

But Wirral Council’s Planning Committee have managed previously to grant a planning application that was overturned by the courts.

It was made a criminal matter for councillors to participate and vote in decisions at public meetings in which they had a prejudicial interest a while ago.

I’m not implying by that, that the councillors on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee are behaving in a criminal way, as this would require them to actually understand what they were doing!

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