Sale of Whitehaven Golf Course

Whitehaven Golf Course was sold by Copeland Council in 2006 before I was elected to the council.

I have some serious concerns about the way the planning issues relating to this site were handled by both Copeland Council and Cumbria County council, particularly the enforcement of the conditions on the original planning application.

When planning conditions are imposed they should be enforced. I would not say that retrospective amendments should never be approved, but they should be considered carefully, and in a transparent way, because they have the potential to bring the whole planning process, including both councils and developers, into disrepute.

A number of issues were posted in the comments section of this blog relating to the sale of the site. I am still asking questions about these, but it may help if I make it clear that

1) There has been a complaint to the District Auditor about the sale if the golf course, from a member of the public.

2) One of the documents requested by the complainant was, in the opinion of the council's officers, covered by one of the exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act. The officers therefore declined to show this document to the complainant, but they did show it to the District Auditor.

3) Council officers assure me that they have given the District Auditor all the information which he has requested.

4) The Auditor's investigation is still in process and he has indicated that he has another interview to do before he completes his inquiries.

Obviously those who have been following this saga will be interested to see what the Auditor has to say. Regardless of the outcome of the complaint to the auditor, there will, in my opinion, be some important learning points for the council about the history of this site.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more