Complaint to Weymouth Town Council | weymouthneighbourhoodplandemocracy.org.uk

Complaint investigation report

Complaint received:03 December 2023

Complaint:

I am asking Jane Biscombe to treat this as a formal complaint against the Weymouth Council as a matter of Maladministration.

Let me number my points for ease of reference:

Can we please start from the premise as expressed by the government and I quote:

Neighbourhood planning is a new way for communities to have a say in the future of the places where they live and work. It gives you the power to produce a plan with real legal weight that directs development in your local area. It helps you:

choose where you want new homes, shops and offices to be built
have your say on what those new buildings should look like
grant planning permission for the new buildings you want to see go ahead

I assume that we all have the leaflet which you say is the ‘offending’ one, “In Touch Conservatives January 2023”. I assume we all have the riposte from David Harris, “Focus on Preston Liberal Democrats Spring 2023”. As a resident with no particular party-political leaning may I say how disappointed I am that this has turned into a party spat between the majority on the council and the majority in the ward of Preston. It is a shame that you say you did not attend the January meeting in Preston where, as a councillor, you would have had the opportunity to address the meeting and make any comments which you thought appropriate.
Let me say that Preston is a predominantly retired area and it is unsafe for the council to think that by putting something up on “social media” and The Echo you will reach a significant part of the community. The January meeting was packed (I estimated well over 200 people with every seat taken and people standing around the walls on 3 sides) precisely because the helpful flyer was put through every letterbox with many people saying this was the very first they had heard of a “Neighbourhood Plan”. Cllr Harris chose to use the same, successful medium by posting his Spring 2023 riposte also through every letterbox. Contrast that with the disastrous event organised by the council and at Preston held this August on a bank Holiday weekend with little or no publicity where 9 people attended and where the council, by its own admission, had failed to even get the Echo advertising out in a timely manner. Then let’s look at the meeting held in Preston on 14^th November where I counted over 120 people, 100 seated and 20 standing. The attendance for this meeting was well down on the January turnout simply because the leafletting was aborted halfway through out of respect for the tragic death of Cllr Ferrari, with his personal contact details having been included on the leaflet. My conclusion is that the 3 Green Spaces in Preston have been changed by the Steering Committee to Development Land based on the attendance of 9 people in Preston in August and the Weymouth total of 35 people who sent in a positive opinion for development, which forms the 4^th Engagement Feedback, as opposed to the 9 opinions against. You say this gives you a mandate of 48% and 58% respectively for development on a sample of 35 and you are going to disenfranchise the 573 people who took part in January with up to 74% voting against development. Page 3 of the August 2023 “community Engagement January 2023” refers. Shame on you. The pre-submission Plan dated October 2023 goes on to say (page 70): “Sites allocated for development by Policy WNP23 have emerged as those most supported by the community”. This is nonsense and highly undemocratic. Let me also confirm that, as of this date, no leaflet through the Royal Mail has arrived.
I could dissect the two leaflets but, in essence, you are offended because the Conservatives talked in January about 500 new homes in Preston. Under WNP 24 and 25 you are proposing 480; are you seriously saying that a rounding of 4% in guesstimates is “interference “and “misleading”? In your leaflet you use the words: “The leaflet’s estimate of 500 homes on the two sites in Preston was highly inaccurate” (your bold type). Not according to your own figures it wasn’t!
Please do think about the conspiracy theorists and how you appear to your electorate. You say in your flyer that: “No decisions or plans have been proposed” (your own bold type) but I will get to the bottom of this by making a FOI request to Weymouth Council for all the communications between Bellway Homes and the Council. If I am refused, this will only increase the suspicions of secrecy and malfeasance. Please consider: Bellway Homes buy all the land; Bellway Homes purchase the access off Budmouth Avenue from a bungalow, without which no access would be possible; in 2022 I watched a Bellway Team over several days bring in a drilling rig and carry out soil surveying in what everyone knows is very difficult terrain. People ask: “is the fix in”? Long afterwards, the Neighbourhood Plan changes the designation from Green Space to Development Land. Surprise, surprise.
I urge you all to reconsider the unlawful disenfranchisement of the residents of Preston in this connection. It will most certainly come out down the road to the Inspector and, possibly, through a Judicial Review. This is not about dozens of houses losing 5-figure sums because of the blighting of their property, it is about basic democracy.

Clarification was received on 07 December 2023 and the points in that email are detailed further below.

Response from Jane Biscombe, Town Clerk to the initial points above.

Although not covering Parish and Town Councils, the Local Government Ombudsman, defines maladministration as:

In general terms, it is ‘administrative fault by the body in jurisdiction’ or ‘fault in an action taken by a body acting on behalf of the body in jurisdiction’.

There is no threshold for maladministration, and we should always identify where something has gone wrong in our reports and decision statements. Regardless of how serious the maladministration is, we should not consider it by itself. We must assess the effect the action had on the complainant (the injustice) and whether a remedy should be provided.

Maladministration in broad terms might include:

flaws in policies or decision making
poor administrative practice
failure to adhere to or consider properly statutory guidelines
failing to consider properly the exceptional circumstances of an individual or a situation
not properly considering statutory powers or duties
failing to give an adequate service.

The Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (WNPSG) is a group supported and legitimised by the Council. It was set up to carry out the drafting of the Neighbourhood Plan to fully involve the community at a very tangible and meaningful level, it does this via its membership which has community members as a majority, the Councillors as a minority. Although it is not subject to the same rules and regulations as the Council itself is, it has a responsibility to be transparent in its working with the Council and in its work in general. It does this via Steering Group meetings that have publicly available meetings notes and supporting paperwork, and public reports to the Town Council. The Steering Group has been empowered to draft the Neighbourhood Plan. However, any formal releases, including submission documents to Dorset Council, require prior approval by the Town Council as a whole.

Taking each point in turn:

No complaint detailed

Party Political leaflets

This has already been the subject of a complaint to Dorset Council who determined that they would not look into this as it was a matter of local party politics. I concur with this decision by the Monitoring Officer, Jonathan Mair, and have no mandate or power or overrule it or revisit it.

I do not find any maladministration on the part of Weymouth Town Council in accepting the ruling of the Monitoring Officer.

Promotion of events and size of engagement:

The WNP Steering Group have made best efforts to promote consultation and engagement events. This included a leaflet delivered to all properties in the Weymouth Town Council area via The Royal Mail (noting that Royal Mail do not guarantee 100% coverage). There have been numerous other promotional activities including posters, social media, and newspaper adverts. Please see Annexes B and C.

Responses to consultation can only take into account those views submitted as part of that consultation, even where returns are low.

Residents of Preston have been encouraged to respond to the current consultation. They will have a further opportunity to voice their views when the Town Council submits the final draft to Dorset Council who will then conduct a further consultation. There will then be a final opportunity to give a view on the Neighbourhood Plan when the referendum is held.

The WNPSG are within their remit to handle feedback as they see best and have produced a public report which is available on the Council’s website.

I do not find any maladministration on the part of Weymouth Town Council in the above promotion activities.

Accuracy of housing figures

In January Preston residents were made aware that some local Councillors estimated a figure of 500 homes in the Preston area. The version of the WNP that was being consulted on at this time included the figures from the published Site Options and Assessment report showing between 168 and 191 for this area as viable figures. This has since been changed to 480, but at the time of the consultation, it was not 480.

I do not find any maladministration on the part of Weymouth Town Council in the above.

A “fix” with Bellway Homes.

Bellway Homes responded to the public call for sites request and discussions with Bellway Homes have continued as the draft plan has progressed. This is not unusual in the Neighbourhood Planning process. Engagement with developers and landowners is encouraged to ensure a holistic and informed draft is brought forward based in reality and agreed parameters.

I can find no evidence of planning applications or papers submitted by Bellway Homes or any other developer to Dorset Council for specific plans for the land off Budmouth Avenue. The Town Council is not the Planning Authority, that responsibility rests with Dorset Council. Although the Town Council may choose to comment on a planning applications submitted to Dorset Council, it has no decision making remit with regard to determining planning applications. Any development plans submitted to Dorset Council will go through the usual legal planning process for determination.

It is usual for Neighbourhood Plan groups to speak with developers regarding areas of land to inform the emerging plan. Please see Annex A “How to work with Landowners and Developers” by Planning Aid England. This has been the subject of an FOI enquiry, for response by 09 January 2024.

I do not find any maladministration on the part of Weymouth Town Council in the engagement with Bellway Homes.

I have taken the liberty of separating out some points in a clarification email of 07 December 2023 to specifically address these for completeness and reassurance that all angles of the complaint have been considered.

Specific areas of complaint:

Activities of the Steering Committee for the Neighbourhood Plan. Specifically changing the status of land at Preston from its designation of Green Space to Development Land.

The role of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (NPSG) is to formulate the draft Neighbourhood Plan and present this to the Town Council for approval, before handing it over to Dorset Council for conformity validation, further public consultation, and independent inspection by the Planning Inspectorate. Following this there may be a redrafting process. The final step will be a full public referendum run by Dorset Council as the local Election Authority.

A draft Neighbourhood Plan may contain variances to existing designations based on the demonstrated needs and views of the area as a whole. As such, this does not demonstrate maladministration on the part of Weymouth Town Council. The process was correct, even if the outcome may not be agreeable with all.