Letter of Complaint Against Nottingham City Council

Mr. Robert Whyman

9 Lytton Close St Ann’s Nottingham NG3 2GJ The Local Government Ombudsman PO BOX 4771 Coventry CV4 OEH

5^th August 2011 Dear Sir,  Complaint against Nottingham City Council regarding its Stonebridge Park Estate public consultation exercise 2008 – 2009  I am a private house occupier living on the Stonebridge Park Estate, and my neighbours and I are very unhappy at the lack of consultation conducted by Nottingham City Council [NCC] during the above period, and their maladministration. I have gone through the two levels of complaint against the City council, and as I remain unhappy with their response, I have been advised to take my complaint further to the Ombudsman; therefore please can you investigate my complaint.  Two new small houses are now being constructed nine feet away from my home which my neighbours and I knew nothing about prior to April this year. In addition, despite 50 local occupiers objecting to the proposal to build a road down the Lytton Close footpath in front of my home at a public meeting in 2007 (attended by local labour councillors Dave Liversidege & Jon Collins, Nottingham City Council officers and Developer Leicester Housing Association). We were angry and upset to discover recently that this road is now going ahead.  Throughout 2007 the developer LHA_ASRA and NCC carried out a detailed consultation programme based on the original Master Plan that involved over 400 people living on the Stonebridge Park Estate. The majority of locals were happy with the plan and it was adopted in full by everyone. That Master Plan did not show the two new houses now being built on Eastham Close, which is an important point. The original 2007 Master Plan went before the NCC Executive Board in August 2007 who adopted it as the main regeneration plan for the Stonebridge Estate.  However, soon after this Master Plan was adopted, NCC development officers swept aside the public consultation findings, plus the original Master Plan, and made significant modifications to it –- they created a new Master Plan. One of these modifications was the inclusion of the two houses next to my own on Eastham Close.  My main complaint is that only 20 locals were consulted about these major changes at the public meeting of 27 August 2008. This was the only public meeting that the revised Master Plan was shown to the local community. And this master plan was incomplete, and had not been approved by the Stonebridge Project Board!  At the Stonebridge Project Board meeting of 3^rd October 2008 the minutes show that Mrs Sushma Cheesbrough (NCC Head of Housing Strategy), was very concerned:  “SC commented that this master plan was also displayed at the last SPTRA meeting and was issued at the last minute without any formal discussion or approval by the Project Board. SC queried whether the number of residents at the SPTRA meeting in Aug ’08 maybe insufficient to justify the alterations made by LHA.”  Rajinder Sagoo also of the City Council told the meeting:  “RS stated that there were around 20 residents present along with the SPTRA Board Members. This does not constitute a whole community and doesn’t encapsulate all of their views. A comprehensive consultation programme with a final master plan needs to be produced before we present this again. The Project Board was then informed of the Stonebridge Park Neighbourhood Plan Objectives that had been ratified by Nottingham City Council Members. It was discussed and agreed that residents’ views from the SPTRA meeting in Aug ’08 were representative, but not of the whole community and that everyone had to be consulted.”  Following this Stonebridge Project Board meeting a copy of the revised Master Plan was circulated to all local households on the Stonebridge Estate, however, the illustration was small, about the size of the palm of your hand, lacked detail and was of little or no value. There was no door to door consultation with the 400 locals living on the Estate.  On this revised Master Plan you could not see the location of the new public footpaths, proposed new roads, how big the new buildings were going to be, or how close together they were relative to adjacent properties.  When I wrote a letter of complaint to Nottingham City Council about the absence of a consultation exercise around the revised Master Plan. NCC Regeneration officers Michael Charlton, Mark Lowe and Sushma Cheesbrough pointed to the Stonebridge Project Board meetings of 2008/9. However, there was very little feedback from the Board to the local community, and only a handful of poorly attended public meetings of the Tenants & Residents Association [SPTRA] took place during this period. The Stonebridge Project Board was not a public consultation platform, as only a handful of locals attended the private meetings, and not the 400 people who were living on the Stonebridge Estate at the time.  In her letter to Mr Richard Pearson dated 9^th May 2011 Sushma Cheesbrough said that:  “The final outline master plan was endorsed by the Stonebridge Project Board in June 2009 and subsequently submitted as an outline planning application in September 2009” However, this is clearly a false statement. In the recent letter I received from Glenn E. Estes (NCC Information Governance Case Administrator), he points out that the meeting on 3^rd June 2009 was cancelled, and never took place!  My complaints to Nottingham City Council have not been investigated. In the first instance Regeneration Manager Mr Michael Charlton did not consult any of the Stonebridge Board, or the Tenants & Residents Association [SPTRA] minutes, or any documents. His letter of reply to my complaint was written in minutes and put straight into the post shortly after I handed my complaint into their office at Loxley House.  When I re-complained to Nottingham City Council, it seems to me that NCC Housing Development Manager, Mr Mark Lowe, also did not investigate my complaint. He just repeated the same words of his colleague Michael Charlton who works in the same room as himself. He also refers to the Stonebridge Project Board meeting of 3^rd June, 2009, saying that: “the project board gave its full support to the master plan,” but this meeting did not happen.  I was so annoyed that I went around the Stonebridge Estate and gathered a petition containing 159 signatures from locals who disapproved of the building of the two new houses 9 feet away from my home on Eastham Close. This number of people represents the majority of the 200 people living on the estate today. The two new houses should never have been built next to my home, because no one wanted them as part of the new master plan.  The minutes of the Stonebridge Project Board dated 1^st May 2009, show that the master plan was put to this meeting for approval, however, it was clearly stated that:  “Areas of the Master plan not yet subject to detailed planning permission may be subject to minor changes as the development progresses, which may include changes to 1. Size of dwellings to better reflect individual plot sizes 2. Variety of house types in some areas where a high concentration of one house type is shown 3. Parking; the board will be included in discussions for any such changes, and further endorsements will be required when detailed planning permission is sought.”  This meeting was held prior to detailed planning permission being obtained, and board members asked at this meeting to see details of the further changes to the master plan before approving them on behalf of the local community. However, LHA_ASRA and City Council Officers did not provide this information because this was the last ever meeting of the Stonebridge Project Board. Board member Jackie Swift said today: “To my knowledge the steering group was never officially disbanded, was never contacted again by the regeneration team since May 2009, just to clarify this!”  The minutes of this meeting do say that: “The Board agreed and endorsed the design of phase 1A to be submitted to planning. This is an agreement of the following; 23 houses 22 apartments Layout of the plan.” Board members did not agree to the new road down Lytton Close.  My complaint is that no one was consulted on the Stonebridge Park Estate as to whether they agreed to the detail on the new 2009 master plan, and that the views of the 20 people who attended the only public meeting who were shown this revised (and incomplete) master plan on 27^th August 2008, was not representative of the wishes of the 400 locals living on the estate at the time. This whole process was flawed, in addition to being conducted in a deceitful way by Nottingham City Council, and everyone living on the estate was kept in the dark throughout 2008/9.  Please will you investigate my complaint of maladministration against Nottingham City Council? Yours sincerely Robert Whyman Mr. Robert Whyman  I enclose copies of all letters, my petition, Stonebridge Project Board Minutes, and plans in my possession.