Formal/informal meetings

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Mid Sussex District Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Mid Sussex District Council,

13/01383/OUT demolition of existing buildings and removal of hardstanding and erection of 6 dwellings (4 detached dwellings and a pair of semi-detached dwellings).

The Architects appointed to this project state in section 2.49

'Ward Councillors Coote, Forbes and Walker are aware of the application and are generally supportive of the priniciple of development'

I believe this may be a prejudicial statement and would give financial gain to the land owner, further more it would demonstrate that the planning process has not been conducted in an unbiased manner.

Could you please supply me with minutes and notes regarding all meetings between the land owner and his agents and worth parish council, MSDC, etc, regarding this application and the Hastoe application Ref. No: 13/01146/FUL.

Yours faithfully,

Max Knight

Freedom of Information, Mid Sussex District Council

Thank you for your email. If the email contains a request for information,
the 20 working day countdown will start on the first working day after
receipt of this request.

 

The request may be subject to an exemption, which the Authority is
entitled to apply to refuse the request. We will notify you if this is the
case.

 

Once the information has been identified the Authority may also ask that a
fee be paid for processing and delivering the information to you. Details
of any fee to be charged will be notified to you as soon as possible.

 

Any future correspondence you may have in relation to this matter should
be sent to the Senior Service Improvement Officer, Mid Sussex District
Council, Oaklands, Oaklands Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1SS or
by return to this email.

 

Information provided under the FOI Act 2000 or the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 may be not be re-used, except for personal
study and non-commercial research or for news reporting and reviews,
without the permission of the Council. Please see the Council website
www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=4084  for further information or
contact Service Improvement on 01444 477422.

 

 

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Freedom of Information, Mid Sussex District Council

Dear Mr Knight,

Thank you for your request. All information relating to planning applications is kept on our Online Planning Register at: http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/8085.htm, and can be searched for using the application reference 13/01146/FUL. From looking at the online register, it has not yet been given a committee date. We will also check with Planning to see if there is anything else relating to this request.

We notice in your request you ask for 'minutes and notes regarding all meetings between the land owner and his agents and worth parish council'. If the landowner has had any contact with Worth Parish Council, you would need to contact Worth Parish for this information. We can only supply you with anything related to Mid Sussex DC. The Worth Parish email address is [email address].

yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Performance and Partnerships
01444 477422
[Mid Sussex District Council request email]
http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/6559.htm
Working together for a better Mid Sussex

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Dear Freedom of Information,

As advised I redirected this request to Worth parish council, who as yet have failed to respond.

This freedom of information request needs answering urgently.

Yours sincerely,

max knight

Freedom of Information, Mid Sussex District Council

Thank you for your email. If the email contains a request for information,
the 20 working day countdown will start on the first working day after
receipt of this request.

 

The request may be subject to an exemption, which the Authority is
entitled to apply to refuse the request. We will notify you if this is the
case.

 

Once the information has been identified the Authority may also ask that a
fee be paid for processing and delivering the information to you. Details
of any fee to be charged will be notified to you as soon as possible.

 

Any future correspondence you may have in relation to this matter should
be sent to the Senior Service Improvement Officer, Mid Sussex District
Council, Oaklands, Oaklands Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1SS or
by return to this email.

 

Information provided under the FOI Act 2000 or the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 may be not be re-used, except for personal
study and non-commercial research or for news reporting and reviews,
without the permission of the Council. Please see the Council website
www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=4084  for further information or
contact Service Improvement on 01444 477422.

 

 

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Freedom of Information, Mid Sussex District Council

Dear Mr Knight,

Mid Sussex cannot provide you with any information for Worth Parish Council. If you have sent a request to them for information, it is to them that you need to write to point out that they haven't responded. We have no jurisdiction over Worth Parish. They are an independent organisation under FOI.

yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Performance and Partnerships
01444 477422
[Mid Sussex District Council request email]
http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/6559.htm
Working together for a better Mid Sussex

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L J Isteed left an annotation ()

Mr Knight

I see that like others you are finding it difficult to obtain information from MSDC under the FoI.

Cllrs Coote, Forbes and Walker are MSDC Councillors also. If they have been 'made aware of' and are generally 'supportive' of the application as Worth PC Councillors, they must also be 'aware' and 'supportive' as MSDC Councillors.

If the applicant and/or their Architects have wrongly reported their discussions with these three Cllrs, if indeed such discussions occured, then, clearly, the information submitted on the planning website needs to be ammended. If not, then the information you have requested frrom MSDC might be available in other formats - electronically perhaps?

It may be that the Cllrs have their own notes of these meetings on their own computers or in a notebook?

You might consider writing to each Cllr directly in his capacities as both WPC and MSDC Cllrs. at the appropriate e-mail addresses, under individual FoI requests. This will also allow them the opportunity of formally, in writing, to deny these meetings and the views attributed to them if the applicant or his representative have made a mistake.

Cllrs Coote and Walker are on the MSDC Planning Committee, no?

No doubt the MSDC Monitoring Officer will want to check that there has been no inadvertent 'pre-determination'.

It might also be helpful to ask the MSDC Monitoring Officer what, if any, policy MSDC has with respect to meetings by Cllrs with developers ahead of an application being determined and, in particular, what rules are set for recording what was discussed.

Freedom of Information, Mid Sussex District Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Knight,

Thank you for your request for information. Please find enclosed a copy of the planning officer's notes from a site visit and a meeting that was attended, which relate to the request you have made. All other documentation for this application is available on the Online Planning Register at: http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/8085.htm, as stated in a previous email.

If for whatever reason you are unhappy with our response you are entitled to pursue any dissatisfaction, in the first instance, by contacting Tom Clark, Solicitor to the Council, Mid Sussex District Council, Oaklands, Oaklands Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 1SS, email: [email address], quoting your FOI Reference Number.
 
If you still remain dissatisfied with the response you can complain to the Information Commissioner - details available at: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us...
 
Information provided under the FOI Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 may be not be re-used, except for personal study and non-commercial research or for news reporting and reviews, without the permission of the Council. Please see the Council website www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=4084  for further information or contact Service Improvement on 01444 477422.
 
yours sincerely,

FOI Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Freedom of Information
Performance and Partnerships
01444 477422
[Mid Sussex District Council request email]
http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/6559.htm
 
Working together for a better Mid Sussex

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