1 week Ago By [email protected] (Alan Smith)
Don’t petition your councillors with your objections, as you may harm your cause. That was the advice from Cllr Matt Boughton, the Conservative leader of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, during a debate on a controversial planning application for new homes in East Malling. His warning came after one of his cabinet members said she had felt intimidated after objectors to a scheme for 52 homes at Ivy Farm off Wateringbury Road had hand-delivered a package listing their arguments for refusal through councillors’ letterboxes.
There was no suggestion that the package in any way contained threats or abuse, but some councillors still felt that residents coming to their home address was a step too far. Speaking at the full council meeting to decide the application, Cllr Kim Tanner (Con) said: “The countless emails over the last few months sent to councillors - and more recently written communications posted through our letterboxes at home - is close to harassment. “Making decisions on planning applications to be as fair as possible to residents while protecting the position of the council is hard enough without intimidation from those living close by the proposed development.
” Cllr Boughton said: “A number of members contacted me asking if I had received something through my letterbox at my home address. “Now, I hadn’t. But in a day and age in which elected representatives at all levels are being murdered, sometimes for simply doing their job, and are under attack for expressing an opinion one way or the other, this is not great.
“We are all here because we care about the place; we are all local residents ourselves. “I think sometimes things just cross a line, and I know that speaking to a number of colleagues around the chamber, they felt that that (hand delivery) did. Cllr Boughton said: “I don’t think we should have to put up with any sort of intimidation or abuse.
“I didn’t receive one of these (packages), because under police advice, I have had to have my home address taken off the website because I had been on the end of threats via social media (in the past). “So I’ve got first-hand experience and I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through that, let alone anyone who cares about their community. “So if that (package) sought to influence us, it has probably done the precise opposite.
” But not all councillors felt the same. Cllr David Thornewell (Lib Dem) told the meeting that if there was blame, it lay elsewhere than with residents. He said: “I’m sorry if councillors felt this document, which I did receive through my letterbox, was intimidating in some way, but I feel as the government has toughened up the planning system and made it more and more difficult for local councillors to exercise their discretion, and refuse applications, the public is getting more and more upset with the planning system and I’m afraid the planners take the wash from that.
“And I say to the government, it will get worse if you alter planning committees and reduce local input into the system. “It feeds into the idea generally across the Western world that those in power don’t take any notice of people.” Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Thornewell said: “The package just contained a list of their objections and photographs of traffic and other issues they thought were relevant.
“There was nothing rude or abusive. “It is true that residents have been somewhat critical of the planning officers, but that was because they thought the officers’ reports had not been accurate in a number of details such as the presence of badgers on the site and the issue of windows in the house alongside the application site. “I don’t think there’s anything new in that.
Residents have often been critical of the planning department.” Cllr Thornewell is the borough’s longest-serving member. He was elected when the authority was first formed in 1974 and had been a member of the preceding rural district council for two years before that.
He said: “Since the digital age, many people do contact councillors by email, but we have also always had things posted through our doors. “I’ve had four notes through my door in the last few days - about litter bins, overhanging trees and other issues. “Getting stuff through your letterbox just comes with the job.
” Cllr Thornewell also spoke in praise of the objectors to the Ivy Farm scheme - 22 of whom had addressed the council meeting. He said: “Sometimes objectors just say they don’t like something or it’s going to devalue their property value, but the Ivy Farm residents presented well-researched and well-argued planning reasons for refusal.” In the end, the objectors won the day, with councillors voting by 30 to four to refuse the application.
Even Cllr Boughton voted aginst, despite his earlier comments. Find out about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal. Details of the planning application can be seen on the council’s website, under application reference number 22/01570.
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