Thread by @Andrew9Boswell

THREAD: What you should know about @SNorfolkCouncil planning appl for a agricultural machinery &engineering company HQ in Swainsthorpe nr Norwich

THAT has @Norfolkcc heading to the High Court over its planning consultation response

AND why I am call for an investigation
1/15

https://twitter.com/Andrew9Boswell/status/1358745107105742849

2/15 Swainsthorpe Parish Council now has
a High Court judicial hearing is pencilled in for March 23, having launched a JR as reported here edp24.co.uk/news/local-cou…

FOUR grounds are before the Court including breaches to Council's constitution - these will be decided by the Court

3/15 I am concerned about TWO other possible breaches of the Council constitution NOT in the Court case as they are more matters internal to @NorfolkCC

Background here -

https://twitter.com/Andrew9Boswell/status/1354460258706591745?s=20

4/15 FIRST - were the protocols for officer/member (councillor) relationship breached?

Officers were required to write a Cabinet report which effectively overwrote advice they had given as highways experts 18 months earlier - they had about 2 working days to do so

One wrote⬇️

5/15 There is no public evidence that this officer's concern at what the Cabinet was asking was ever addressed or dealt with

There are two issues of concern
- reputational damage to the council as Highways consultees
- professional damage to Highways officers
⬇️⬇️

6/15 The Council constitution Appendix 22 lays out PRINCIPLES for member/office working -
have these been breached?
⬇️⬇️

7/15 SECOND The campaign who are taking the Council to court have raised other issues about the planning application here 👉swainsthorpeplanning.com/campaign/

8/15 The Council cabinet have changed the initial Highways objection to one that (pending High Court) is favourable to the development going ahead.

Why?

Given that there are large capital gains to be made, it is crucial that the Council show that they are not influenced by this

9/15 Opposition councillors called the decision into scrutiny at the time - here is what one of them said
⬇️edp24.co.uk/news/business/…

10/15 The Council constitution has a Code of Conduct, here are the key principles

11/15 When there is doubt in the public mind (and there is), the Council should hold an independent investigation run by the Monitoring Officer (head of law)

It is to the Cabinet's advantage to do this, as it is the best way to demonstrate that the Constitution has been followed

12/15 Public doubt and concerns increase if there is a refusal to have such an investigation

13/15 So I asked the Cabinet last week if they would instruct the Monitoring Officer to hold such an investigation into possible breaches of Constitution
as reported by @DanGrimmer24 in @Edp24 here edp24.co.uk/news/ben-burge…

The leader refused an investigation

14/15 Here is the video of my question and the reply (60 sec clip)

15/15
So public doubt and very important questions about how this matter was conducted remain unanswered

I hope that oppostion councillors, one of whom previously said the matter "stinks", will now push for the full investigation that should take place on these events.

@threadreaderapp unroll

16/15 - here is the link which goes with this photo
swainsthorpeplanning.com/campaign/

.@jdunning64⬆️⬆️

.@SthNorfolkGreen ⬆️⬆️