A member of the public’s call to probe the circumstances surrounding planning permission for a controversial new warehouse park have been rejected by a committee.
The chairman of Milton Keynes Council’s scrutiny management committee did however say he would have talks after Wednesday’s meeting to see if concerns about the development at South Caldecotte could be looked into more deeply.
Bow Brickhill resident Sue Malleson triggered a little used rule that allows members of the public to present their concerns, submitting 14 points to the meeting.
She said the allocation of countryside at South Caldecotte to be used for business had appeared suddenly and had suffered from a “lack of visible accountability”.
She claimed that the council had capitulated to developers at a planning inquiry and that Bow Brickhill had not received any mitigation while £250,000 was given to Hazard Alley, a facility miles away from the area.
She said: “The result is 57 hectares of employment served by only one access, from a very small length of upgraded Brickhill Street, a road that comes to a standstill when the level crossing gates are down.
“I believe the council needs to understand why it happened, how it happened and identify errors in the system so that similar things cannot happen in the future.”
Tracy Darke, the council’s outgoing director of planning, strategic transport and placemaking said many of the issues were “very historical, spanning a five year period and have been dealt with in the past.”
This she said included changing processes to hold key planning meetings in public instead of restricting attendance to councillors.
An application to use the land for two giant warehouses, which was granted at appeal, had initially refused by the development control committee.
Ms Darke said: “During the inquiry process the appellant changed the scheme in line with the requirements that my officers had been asking for over a two year period.
“The appeal was a success because we were very clear about the areas that could and couldn’t be developed on the site.”
The decision by council officers to agree to the scheme without referring back to the development control committee was a “normal issue”.
She added that some lessons had been learned.
Cllr Norman Miles (Lab, Wolverton) said: “At the moment the council is somewhat stretched. I’m not convinced it is a good use of resources.”
But ward Cllr David Hopkins (Cons, Danesborough & Walton) said: “It’s something we need to be getting into in some detail.”
Seven councillors voted to give the issue some scrutiny but eight objected.
But the issue may be the subject of further talks behind the scenes.
Cllr Keith McLean (Cons, Olney), who voted to scrutinise the issue, said: “Much as we’ve made this decision I don’t feel it’s dead in its entirety.”
© MKFM News 2020
