To Paul Clark - Head of Development Control

Dear Paul

The number of e-comments in support of the Palm Court application is becoming farcical. I am told by a Kings Croft resident that Philip Loydal has appeared on facebook asking his friends and contacts to send him their email addresses so that he can comment on his application. If this proves to be correct I am inclined to contact the police as I would expect this practice to be illegal. There is something sinister about many of the comments as they are all in lower case and appear to emanate from a common source. Importantly they do not appear to be based on material considerations and should not be accepted as valid comments of support by your officers.

This is making an ass of the planning process but what I would like to believe is that this practice is at the very least identified by you as undesirable and that you will be talking to the applicant, and if the extract from your planning website is to be credible then many of these e-comments should be discounted.

According to the planning website under commenting on an application the council states:

You can submit your comments by several methods: through our eplanning service, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Development Control, or write to the Director of Planning and Transportation. Comments may be made by anyone, regardless of whether they were notified individually. We will consider all representations, providing they relate to relevant planning issues, what we call ‘material considerations’. We cannot consider issues such as loss of property value, private disputes between neighbours, matters covered by leases or covenants, the impact of construction work and competition between firms. We acknowledge comments by post and they are available for the public to read at Roman House.

I would be grateful for your comments on this ludicrous situation as it is angering local residents who if they see no redress against this stupidity may well counter support comments by doing precisely the same as objectors and where does that get anybody especially the democratic planning process?

Regards