Development Committee of the District Council.<\/a><\/p>\nThere were only two items to consider.<\/p>\n
The first was for a house in Trenders Avenue, Rawreth. This was refused on Green Belt grounds – despite being supported by Ron Oatham. Ron felt that as this was previously a reclamation yard, and 4 houses had already been allowed here, a fifth would finish the site nicely. However only 6 councillors voted in favour of approval.<\/p>\n
The second was off London Road in Rayleigh. It was to demolish the existing Elizabeth Fitzroy home for handicapped adults, and build a bew care home with 43 houses. Some of these would be in the Green Belt, and could count towards the 550 proposed for “North of London Road”.<\/p>\n
Officers were recommending refusal , on various grounds – including Grreen Belt reasons, design, and no affordable housing included. <\/p>\n
However one of the ward councillors – Conservative Toby Mountain – asked for a decision to be deferred. He pointed out that the existing care home needed replacing, and that perhaps a deferral would allow the applicant to get together with council officers to thrash out a viable scheme.<\/p>\n
Although Cllr Mountain is a new councillor, and hasn’t spoken very often in the council chamber yet, other councillors across the chamber felt he spoke well.<\/p>\n
However , Cllr Mountain didn’t actually say the phrase “I move deferral”.<\/em> You might expect one of the more senior councillors sitting near him to prompt him to say those words, but nobody seemed to have spotted it.<\/p>\nUntil another Conservative councillor, Colin Seagers, said that Cllr Mountain hadn’t properly moved a deferral – so he moved refusal instead.<\/p>\n
When it came to a vote, it was tied 12-12. The committee chairman, Phil Capon, had the casting vote , and voted for refusal. <\/p>\n
So the scheme was refused. Though some councillors clearly felt that Cllr Mountain had been treated a bit harshly….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a surprise twist tonight at the Development Committee of the District Council. There were only two items to consider. The first was for a house in Trenders Avenue, Rawreth. This was refused on Green Belt grounds – despite being supported by Ron Oatham. Ron felt that as this was previously a reclamation yard, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19,13,3,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Drama In the Council Chamber - onlineFOCUS<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n