How they betrayed us

Everyday I bump into people who simply can't understand how Borough Green got lumbered with Isles Quarry Housing, and it isn't an easy question to answer standing on a street corner. So here is a sample of the evidence that I think proves that we were the victims of a conspiracy. Whether we can fight back against this, whether we can win against Our Beloved Borough Council, I don't know. All I know is that you want us to try, to save the village we love from greedy Developers and Planners.

Of course, I could be wrong: you have a look and see what you think.

Below is an extract from the minutes of the Parish Council meeting of 1st December 2003, some famous names present, Sue Murray, David Evans, Barry Hughes, Charles Willsher etc. The Hanson Document is actually a full size plan of Isles Quarry East and West, showing the whole site covered in housing.

Stop Press at the bottom of the page

This is the map that Borough Green Parish Council did not want us to see. They illegally (1)** refused a Freedom of Information request for this specific document in 2007, and it is only now that we have access to BGPC Archives that we obtained a copy. All the coloured bits except green are for housing, and include all of Isles Quarry East as well as West, and the Hanson carpark, where the recycling bins are now.

If IQW was allocated for 200+ house, (Simon Wright proposed 235) IQ East and the carpark could take at least another 100-150. There's your 400 !!

Some of you may well recall the exhibition for the Parish Plan in the Village Hall lobby and Parish Office on 5th & 6th February 2005. You may recall a bit of the Plan that we all approved of that said " Villagers say no to more development". You might be surprised to learn that got retitled "Development supported by villagers" and moved to page 53 in the Plan.

 Even more suspicious was the insertion of the mysterious Action Points, listed in full below, many supporting IQW Housing. Now whilst I might have missed a mention of IQW at the exhibition, despite having  helped set it up, I have a copy of a survey of public responses. Apparently, none of you noticed Isles Quarry, either!

But what is even more curious is that at the PC meeting on 7th March 2005, just after the exhibition, councillors were invited to a private meeting on the 8th March to "discuss the Action Plan". Curiously, there are no known notes or minutes of that meeting, no report, no votes, and no-one can remember who was there !! Group Amnesia ? (2)**

But by the next meeting on the 4th April 2005, they are voting to pay the printing costs : no mention of voting or adopting it? most irregular, most peculiar. I show the minutes below, and after that is Sue Murray's letter accompanying a copy of the "Action Plan" to Brian Gates, Chief Planner at TMBC.

They keep telling us IQW was properly and legally publicised and we all had time to make comments. What they don't admit is that "our" Parish Plan had already been sneaked into TMBC's evidence for the Local Development Framework. From that moment on, we were out of the loop. Whatever anyone said, TMBC just waved "our" Plan and insisted Borough Green residents supported the housing devlopment.

Now, the "Action Plan" that follows next is a very interesting bit of evidence. This only came to light when we took over the Parish Council. It is a completely unattributed 3 sheets of A4, which the conspirators cut up and pasted into our severely edited "Parish Plan", and this is what turns it into an "Action Plan" that suddenly supports that IQW Housing that we knew nothing about.

Several people have now observed, unprompted, that the phraseology used is not normal talk, it is "Plannerspeak", a curious way that planners write because they are ever aware that their work may end up in a Court or Inquiry being scrutinised by lawyers.

The Parish Council has no planners, so who drafted that "Action Plan" (3)**

I think there is enough there to briefly but conclusively illustrate what happened, who to point the finger at. If anyone is really interested, I have got armfuls of this stuff. Lets see what the Lawyers make of it all.

And by the way, nearly everyone who has served on the Parish Council since, even if they weren't part of the conspiracy, are guilty by association because they were told the truth and chose to look the other way.

Another interesting point to note is that in early 2003, before the Hanson proposal, T&M were telling developers who submitted plans for this area that "There is sufficient land banked within the Borough to meet current projections, and there is no need to release land from Greenbelt unless there are Exceptional Local Circumstances". Then Hanson came alongin December, trying to make a fast buck, and T&M reverse its policy. They suddenly discovered they needed 80 affordable homes, and to pay for that and cleaning up IQW, they agreed to a further 120+ so poor starving Hanson could afford it.

Whatever happened to the principle of restoration and quarry owners cleaning up when they are done? They had two bites of the cherry: they had the stone, they then had the landfill, now they want even more.

Stop Press.......

The actions of the PC and T&M have been the subject of a recent Police investigation. I am still awaiting a full report, but some basic facts can be released:

All parties, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, and the old members of BGPC, now accept that

(a) the 2005 Parish Action Plan was invalid

(b) The 2007 Freedom of Information refusal was illegal

The below points refer to asterisks above:

(1) The 2007 FOI was illegal

(2)Present at the 8th March "secret" meeting: Sue Murray, Barry Hughes, Jim Bailey.

(3)"Action Points" are alleged to have been drawn up by GVA Grimley.Hmmmm.

More to follow when report arrives.