To receive any public questions or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is Thursday, 17^th March.

The Chairman advised that two public questions had been received in accordance with Procedure Rule 14 (a copy of the report containing the detail of the questions and the relevant formal responses is attached to the signed minutes)

Public Question 1

Received from Mr Guy Wellsbury and answered by the Chairman, Councillor Arthur Walpole regarding planning enforcement.

By way of a supplementary question Mr Wellsbury asked the following: the Council’s Public Protection Department have been responsive, communicative and balanced in their response to our complaints of Generator noise at unsocial hours of the day and night.  As I have said in my question, a simple response from the Planning Department, as promised, would be welcome.

We were disappointed when this Council Committee granted this application 12 months ago but that disappointment was dissipated slightly by the fact that the 19 conditions would provide our local environment with some protection.

From what I have witnessed in the last 12 months it would appear that meeting Shropshire Councils planning conditions is optional. From the website it would appear that the last enforcement notice, in the whole of Shropshire, was issued 11 months ago.  Not a brick has been laid in 12 months yet an incorrectly positioned caravan has been lived in and many more old wooden buildings erected, some in January this year.  Some of these wooden building will have been in situ for 3 years very soon.  How much longer will we have to wait for effective planning enforcement?  We are becoming fed up.  If this committee are unable to act on enforcement, who can?

The Chairman confirmed that a written response would be sent to Mr Wellsbury in due course.

Public Question 2

Received from Councillor Chris Symes, Welshampton and Lyneal Parish Council and answered by the Chairman, Councillor Arthur Walpole regarding planning enforcement.

By way of a supplementary question Councillor Symes asked the following; the letter does not answer the question, when was the policy decision made by Shropshire Council to reduce the enforcement activity to an irrelevance? To quote the letter “the Council does not have the resource”. Why not?  The letter says that “most applicants comply with planning conditions”. Is “most” 99% or 51%? How on earth do you know? Surely you are not coming to this conclusion on the grounds of “no complaints”?

The letter is inaccurate. As regards to application 10/0260/FUL, clearly the enforcement resource is aware of the Parish Council’s concern about the mobile home, as it did visit and inspect the site at the P.C.’s request, and did instruct for the mobile home to be removed within six weeks, but two years later it is still there. Also, in a recent application for the erection of a barn on the same site, the Parish Council made reference to the unapproved mobile home.

The letter says that “planning enforcement is not within the remit of this committee” but the lack of enforcement to date, and ill-advised decisions by this committee in the past, culminate in the hideous eyesore at Brookmill which you have seen on the photographs because;

·  This committee ignored the advice of local people regarding the fact that this field floods every winter and some summers.

·  This committee ignored the fact that the reason the previous owner sold this land was because it can’t support livestock.

·  This committee ignored the Paris Council’s opinion that a business plan purporting to stable and breed expensive, rare breed horses on this site was utterly unviable.

·  This committee ignored the applicant’s track record of abusing planning regulations even before the application was submitted.

·  This committee decided that animal welfare was “someone else’s problem”.

Mr Chairman, planning enforcement in north Shropshire has become something of a joke. More than once I have been asked “what are Shropshire Council going to do about it”? You may well set planning conditions but who is ensuring they are met?  So, the question is, what is Shropshire Council going to do about it?

The Chairman confirmed that a written response would be sent to Councillor Symes in due course.