Misleading Statement in Newsletters

Recently two newsletters have been circulated to residents of North Bristol.
The first one is from Paul Harrod – Prospective MP for Bristol North West, and the second from the local Liberal Democrat group, this newsletter being known as ‘Focus’.

Both the above newsletters state that “the planning consent cannot now be revoked”.
This statement is misleading and should be discounted by residents for the following reasons:

• According to the minutes of the Development Control Meeting of the 17th January, the planning permission has been granted subject to the conditions and advices listed in the (officers) report and amendment sheet. At the present time negotiations and discussions are continuing (the S106 agreement for example), and as such the planning permission in not concluded, and is therefore not certain.
• The Ombudsman is continuing to investigate the Council with respect to how the planning application was handled, and how the planning decision was reached. Should the investigations confirm the planning application had not been administered correctly by the Council, the Ombudsman could recommend to the Council that action be taken to cancel the planning permission – which might require the Council seeking an order of the court.
• The HorfieldROSE committee is also considering other options to overturn the permission as part of stage 4 of the campaign against the stadium redevelopment.

Whilst one of the guiding principles of HorfieldROSE is to be non-political and be as even-handed as possible when communicating with Political Parties, in this instance we believe we have to inform members and other residents of the inaccuracy of the above planning consent statement.