Friday 29th March 2024,
North Yorks Enquirer

Shocking Find on SBC Planning Portal

Guest Author JOHN MOOK of Filey offers his personal opinion of certain discrepancies he has unearthed another glaring example of incompetence at Scarborough Borough Council.

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Shocking Find on the SBC Planning Portal

A fine example of crossing the I’s and dotting the T’s.

The controversy over the approved plans on Housing Allocation 24 (HA24) in the New Local Plan continues.

On the 4th October 2018, Scarborough Borough Council’s Planning & Development Committee voted in favour 7-to-5 on the plans to develop site HA24. (On the vote, two Councillors abstained).

The decision notice was issued on Wednesday 3rd April 2019. (See  SBC Decision 17/02374/FL Signed by Mr David Walker).

When plans have been approved, they are logged onto the Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) Planning Portal and can be viewed by the public. It is used as a point of reference by the developer, the developer’s agents and the builders and these are the stakeholders who bring the plans to fruition.  (See SBC Planning Application Document List).

However, on these plans, Reference Number 17/02374/FL (Development of retirement living apartments and lifestyle bungalows, site at Church Cliff Drive Filey YO14 9ES), the documents within this approved planning application are INCORRECT as they show the original proposed plan for development dated 27/07/2017 and not the revised plan Option 3, dated 14/05/2018. (See attached the wrong plan SK007).

Also, the site location plans 05/06/2018 and the location site plan SK003 dated 27/07/2017 contain the wrong plans within the boundaries of the site although they do show the correct location of the site and site boundaries. (See and compare the tw0 location plans SK003 one highlighted with yellow marked pen and the other with blue).

The original plans were revised as they did not meet planning regulations on acceptable distances and privacy and amenity policies, with the proposed buildings being too close to existing properties on Wooldale Drive and other policy issues. So the revised plan, Option 3, was drawn up by the developer’s architects Darnton B3.  (See attached The Approved Plan SK07). This was the plan presented to the Planning and Development Committee and members of the public on 4th October 2018.

I and Cllr Kevin Wilkie of Filey Town Council attended the Planning & Development Committee meeting to represent the residents of Filey and Filey Town Council, respectively. At NO time in the 4th October 2018 Planning & Development Committee meeting did the plans currently on the SBC planning website get presented to the Committee to vote on.

The SBC webcast of this Planning & Development Committee meeting has since been removed from SBC’s website.

Can you imagine the shock of discovering this error and what it could potentially lead to if not rectified? Most likely, expensive repercussions for all parties involved.

This is just another example of the incompetence of the Planning Services department at SBC. These plans have been signed off by Mr David Walker, Head of Planning Services.

Surely you would think the system of process in planning should identify errors like this example, if not by the Head of Department then by the subordinate Managers and Officers further down the line? But it appears not.

It appears that “dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s” is not part of SBC’s Planning Services remit.

 

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