A COUNCILLOR has said that Wellington Town Council might as well disband its planning committee as it is a “complete waste of time.”
Cllr Keith Wheatley told colleagues that he had been informed that Somerset Council – the planning authority – would no longer be taking into consideration any comments made on applications by town/parish councils or residents.
It came after a long drawn-out planning application for the building of a house in the garden of Shute House in South Street, Wellington, had been given approval by Somerset Council, despite widespread opposition.
Wellington Town Council had previously objected to the application and local residents had also opposed the plans and so were expecting it to be discussed in full by Somerset Council’s planning committee before a final decision was reached.
So there was a certain amount of surprise when local councillors discovered that the application had been given the go-ahead by Somerset Council on January 10 and signed-off by chief planning officer Alison Blom-Cooper and case officer Harrison Moore.
The Mayor of Wellington, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said: “I was expecting this application to go to a planning committee at Somerset Council, but I find out that it has been given permission by a delegated decision allowed by Cllr Simon Coles, the chairman of the Area West planning committee.”
Cllr Keith Wheatley, who had been an opponent to the Shute House application, told councillors that he contacted Cllr Coles direct to find out what had happened.
And Cllr Wheatley said he was “shocked” by what he had been told.
“This application was about one house being built in a very large back garden,” he said. “There are always going to be planning applications that people don’t like and this is one of them.
“But after speaking to Cllr Coles – we might as well disband this planning committee at Wellington Town Council.
“There was a lot of opposition to the Shute House application and we’d been given indication that it would go before a committee at Somerset Council.
“So residents were astonished to see the application had been given conditional approval when there had been objections by the town council, objections by the ward member and objections by a significant number of people.
“But Cllr Coles has now told me that none of those factors mean that a planning application has to go before a planning committee.
“Somerset Council will only take notice of any objections or comments made by statutory or technical consultees such as highways, environmental and conservation.
“It means residents’ objections have no weight at all and objections made by town and parish councils don’t count. What we say now counts for nothing.
“People might as well be told not to bother writing comments on Somerset Council’s planning portal website as their comments won’t have any impact.
“This planning committee might as well disband – it’s a waste of time. We’re just sat here puffing empty words upwards.”
Town council clerk, Dave Farrow, suggested he wrote to Somerset Council officials to clarify the situation.