The letter gave a period of 21 days from the letter date of November 8th 2012 for receipt of comments. However it also said that plans 'should' be available on the council website 'by 13th November'. I have written to Brent Planning Department to say that it is not possible toe to comment on plans that are not available and asked for confirmation that the 21 days will run from the date that they are uploaded to the planning portal on Brent's website.
You would think that after all the controversy over the demolition and regeneration that the council would try and get this right. Perhaps the rush to get this unpopular project on the road by January has led to yet another decision that will alienate the local community unnecessarily. Unless it is of course aimed at giving Keep Willesden Green campaigners and local residents as little time as possible to comment on extremely detailed plans. Surely they have more respect for local electors than that?
Link to Planning Application
6.20pm on Monday: I have received the following response from Andy Bates at Brent Planning about the planning deadline.
Dear Mr Francis,
I am writing to confirm that the applications will be advertised in the same way as the earlier submissions (press and site notices) and, as a result, the 21 day consultation period will always expire 21 days after the last consultation takes place. In this case, this is likely to be the press notice. My Colleagues in Planning Technical support tell me that this Notice is likely to appear at the end of this week, so the period you are querying will be 21 days from then.
The intention would be to get to the planning applications to the earliest Planning Committee that would be in a position to consider the proposals. I would imagine that this would be likely to be in January/February 2013.
I would argue that this is only fair if the plans are on the website by publication day which is November 15th for our two main local newspapers.
Brent's Planning Website for this application (ref. 12/2924) shows the Public Consultation Period ending on 28 November 2012, but I have also contacted them about this date. I have pointed out that as the planning application affects a conservation area, Brent are required to advertise it in the local press, with the period for objections or comments ending 21 days after the date of publication. It has not yet been advertised, so even if they act straight away and place the advertisement for this week's issue (15 November) they must take into account objections or comments received on or before 6 December 2012.
ReplyDeleteThis will still probably mean that the WGLC planning application goes before Brent's Planning Committee on 16 January 2013, but anyone wishing to object will have at least an extra eight days in which to do so.
Philip Grant