Disingenuous?

Taken from the press release put out by East Devon District Council, Council refers planning issue to police:

“Earlier this week we promised to carefully assess comments made by Cllr Graham Brown to undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph and to respond on the powers the Council has to deal with possible breaches of the Councillor Code of Conduct.

“Whilst Cllr Brown is not a member of the planning committee which decides on planning applications his claims of being able to influence the system have deeply troubled both the council and the public.

Disingenuous, Mr Williams.  Councillor Brown  may not be a member of the Development Management Committee but he was Chairman of the original Local Development Framework Panel which shaped the Local Plan which is now in such disarray because we do not have a 5 year land supply (as predicted by an EDDC Task and Finish Group in 2009).  He was also the Chairman of the Task and Finish Forum of Employment Land:  the one that ditched the reports of two consultants which recommended very little extra employment (industrial) land in East Devon and instead rushed through the EDDC Overview and Scrutiny Commitee a different report put together by East Devon Business Forum of which he was (and still is) Chairman which recommended a vast amount more of industrial land, particularly within the “A3052 Corridor” where prominent members of EDBF have extensive industrial land holdings.

A post by Councillor Claire Wright (Independent) HERE of 6 July 2012 goes into much more detail, some excerpts from which are below:

EDBF minutes January 2007

“Graham Brown reported that he had attended a meeting with the Corporate Director – Environment to discuss the preliminary findings of the Atkins Report. The findings included the conclusion that East Devon did not need as much employment land as East Devon Business Forum had recommended.

Forum members discussed how the findings of the Atkins Report would be amended as they were not in step with East Devon’s needs. The issue of the employment land availability and the Atkins Report would be considered at the meeting of the Business Forum on 19 April 2007.

A Sub Committee of the Business Forum would need to investigate employment land availability, where there was potential for growth and where the business community would like to see development take place.

There was also debate around whether the employment land identified in the Atkins Report was ‘fit for purpose’. The first redrafted report would shortly be available for members to see.

RESOLVED:  that a Sub Committee consisting Graham Brown, Donovan Galling, Nigel Harrison, Tim Ford, Roy Stuart and Claire James (Clinton Devon Estates) or Louise Mayor (Skinner Construction) be established to discuss the issue of availability of employment land in East Devon.”

EDBF minutes August 2007

Reports of the Employment Land Supply Sub-Committee The Chairman thanked the Sub-Committee for the good work they had carried out. He also thanked John Maidment and Matt Dickins (EDDC) for the their support and Nigel’s valued input.

 EDBF Minutes January 2008

Members noted that the work the Business Forum [Chairman Graham Brown] had done on the Atkins Report had made an enormous difference to the final report prepared by the Employment Land Issues Task and Finish Forum [Chairman Graham Brown].

All this has been known about by officers and councillors at EDDC for YEARS!