INCOMPETENT CAN NOT BE SPELT WITH OUT
N,P,T,
For the past 12 months I have been in communication with Neath Port Talbot (NPT) Council and their departments. Through out this process I have been struck with the realization that NPT has no interest in protecting basic human rights, like the right to privacy in your own home. Nor do they actually understand their jobs, responsibilities and duties as government officials. This article will follow the development of a building plot and Neath Port Talbots Councils actions during the process or their lack of action. This was by far my last option to be heard about blatant violations committed under NPT councils eyes and their disregard for those they claim to represent and work for. All documents and communications have been found in public records and therefore not protected under the Data Protection 2018, Although I may alter certain information so that there is no documentation of private citizens, personal contact detail or addresses. But in addition people in public government may have their names listed as any documentation says, unedited. Personal correspondence between myself and the Neath Port Talbot Council have been released to me via a self served Request Of Information in writing and dated, I have formally in writing agreed to release my personal correspondence on the stipulations that follow; no email address will be shown in its entirety and that no personal contact details or addresses are to be visible with the exception of the email addresses after the '@' symbol i.e. @hotmail.com. This decision has been made to provide credibility to the documents without sacrificing on protecting contact details.
We shall begin in the pre-approval stages of NPT planning Committees documentation and vivisect each piece of material and outline the errors, mistakes and lack of due diligence in the articles, there shall also be a full document version uploaded (with data amendments) to References so you may inspect each piece freely. Then we will look at the awareness and approval process carried out by NPT Planning Committee and the dereliction of duty and care to the citizens of NPT. Then after that Process we will look at the development and building of the proposal and how Neath Port Talbot planning Committee has no interest in fulfilling their legal responsibilities and protection of the citizens in the Neath Port Talbot Councils district.
We shall begin in the pre-approval stages of NPT planning Committees documentation and vivisect each piece of material and outline the errors, mistakes and lack of due diligence in the articles, there shall also be a full document version uploaded (with data amendments) to References so you may inspect each piece freely. Then we will look at the awareness and approval process carried out by NPT Planning Committee and the dereliction of duty and care to the citizens of NPT. Then after that Process we will look at the development and building of the proposal and how Neath Port Talbot planning Committee has no interest in fulfilling their legal responsibilities and protection of the citizens in the Neath Port Talbot Councils district.
THE PRE-APPROVAL
In this segment we will only be looking at the documents pertaining to the submitted documents and all problems within only these documents accompanied with evidence that contradicts the sections that are false or omitted. Nothing in this section is hearsay or speculative and I have spent days to try find an interpretation of the sections that would allow these inaccuracies to not lead to a dismissal of the application. To begin we will look at the application form and then the subsequent drawing plans and how they may affect the immediate neighbouring properties and if applicable the affect to the wider citizenship in the community.
The above exert from the application form relates to the presence of trees on any adjacent land, and has been submitted with a tick in the NO box where as if you look to the evidence on the right hand of this article there is in fact trees on neighbouring properties and this if Neath Port Talbot Council did a simple google map search would find the example I have provided along with had they actually came out once this error was raised to them they would see that and neither has the property received the visit from a agricultural professional nor have there been documented that the trees are safe from the ongoing destructive work.
|
This exert addresses whether or not there is changed, new or removed access points to the property and again they have entered 'No' where as if we address the proposed plans and the photograph provided ,left, there is clearly a change and an additional entry point to this property. Again if NPT Planning Committee did their due diligence they would have found this to be the case. But instead they chose to ignore this inaccuracy as well. Which will impact the ever growing motorist and the subsequent dwindling parking spaces. Now a gate and a drive is not in basic that impactful but once you take into the fact these will lead to the loss of two parking spots the impact is large especially as Neath Port Talbot has granted reserved space of three parking spots across the front of the plot so the community will only maintain one of three spaces due to this ignored error.
|
Now we address the plans entered for this development and how Neath Port Talbot has neglected simple human rights to its wards. Above is the document detailing the proposal for a two story garage on an elevated plain bringing its own apex inline with the house. bringing its second story above the surrounding houses. But thats not all, this development will have windows facing into the privacy of others homes and invading their basic human rights.
To the left is a loose representation of the proposed building as close to scale as possible although the submitted plans for this is not to scale by any definition. The upper level is intended to be used and easily accessed via stairs leading from inside the garage so the idea of it being storage is laughable let alone storing anything in a room with six windows, any archivist will tell you sun light is one of the biggest problems with protecting and storing anything. On the unamended plans this level was intended for living and recreational use and I beleive as the ammended diagram still includes the six windows it will be used as living and or recreational purposes. The image to the right is one of the bedrooms in the neighbouring property and demonstrates how much this development will infringe in the neigbouring properties and their privacy, it has been stated being seeable from several properties down. Even after Neath Port Talbot recieved objections and concerns this infringement of human rights was still allowed to go ahead |
|
THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Above is an extraction from Neath Port Talbots own Important dates sheet, as you can see there was in fact no public notification and yes I am aware of the notice posted and have placed the image of the notice to the left of this section. This was the only notice posted in the entire area which if you bare in mind the area is one of a majority elderly and look at the period where this was posted October 2020-November 2020. You will realise that this is in the centre of one COVID-19 lockdown nation wide in Wales and that every person over a certian age or with underlying health issues were forbidden to leave their homes and that loitering on the only padestrian path would pose numerous breaches in the COVID-19 rules and fines were put in place for such breaches.
So how was the public, the communittee and the wider populus informed well it was not through newspapers, public broadcast or social media (the latter one most elderly people do not even consume). It was stuck to a lamp post in size twelve font on a A4 peice of paper. This to Neath Port Talbot was adiquate public notification for a development.
So how was the public, the communittee and the wider populus informed well it was not through newspapers, public broadcast or social media (the latter one most elderly people do not even consume). It was stuck to a lamp post in size twelve font on a A4 peice of paper. This to Neath Port Talbot was adiquate public notification for a development.
Niether was there a comittee date where the general public can address concerns and objections directly to the committee. I for one intended to sit in on this to raise awareness and objections to the vialations this proposal would create. As time went on I regularly checked for this to be announced and to this day they never had one. Eventually the Determination date came and went with no new postings to the Important dates section and I thought well thats that it has been denied, and got on with my day to day lockdown life. Only then to find building work beginning in the vacant plot. So I pulled up Important dates and there it was dated after the expiry date the disision had been made behind closed doors and very private. Attached below are these Important Dates.
So I entered an electronic request under the Freedom Of Information (FOI) Act to Councillor Allwyn Woolcock (ward councillor and only government officail linked to the contacts) for the meeting minutes that decided to extend the deadline to after the expiry date and the meeting minute relating to the approval of this application. Mr A. Woolcock refused to fulfill the release of these documents and claimed that councillors are exempt from FOI requests. Which as a figure head to a government body that exercises funtions of a public nature and that my request was of interest to the public, he is infact expected to fulfill FOI requests. Below is the email from Mr A. Woolcock to myself refusing the request. There are roles and material that can be with held from the public these are very strict exemptions and do not include any material that would have potentially released.
Mr. Steve Ball
|
|
Even though partial information was released weeks after, this information was limited to only what was public on NPT Planning Application website already and neither did they supply a list of all with held documents including why each piece is withheld so getting a court ruling to release information was unlikely to be granted because I could not supply them the list and they could not decide what decisions could be over ruled. you will also notice Mr A. Woolcock had broken the FOI legislation by circulating this request with other government departments and breached data protection act by sharing my personal email address through Neath Port Talbot Council.
POST-APPROVAL
You would think that this was the end of the matter and it was intangible to even consider there being even more developing problems and that I had exhausted all avenues to protect my rights and freedoms, That it was over. No it was not.
As excavation continued it suddenly stopped (Stopped point depth image left) and we couldn't understand why, we were then told by a friend of the worker that they refused to continue after exposing our 1800's clay foundations saying that if they continued our exterior wall could become structurally unsound and that even as it is, it's at risk and they need to re-enforce them and/or relocate the location of the build. So we waited thinking Neath Port Talbot Council will be in touch about the risk to our property and how it can be resolved. We waited weeks fearing our safety in our own home . But NPT never got in touch and the exhuming resumed to our fear and dread(the image below is foundations dug and filled). To this day I do not believe it was the same worker working on site as the matter of our wall was never resolved. So again I contacted NPT Planning Committee to find out about the safety of my building. They chose to send me to the building commission about the structural integrity. Although I was bring to light a major issue in the planning application they were disinterested and could not care. they have now submitted a planning application to re-enforce my property although the re-enforcing had gone ahead after weeks of rain, but were we contacted to say this work was happening and that do we feel it is an appropriate defence against our foundations, No NPT were happy to leave us in limbo and we still have no certificate or guarantee that our property is structurally safe to inhabit, so every day we dread if this is the day we become homeless.
As excavation continued it suddenly stopped (Stopped point depth image left) and we couldn't understand why, we were then told by a friend of the worker that they refused to continue after exposing our 1800's clay foundations saying that if they continued our exterior wall could become structurally unsound and that even as it is, it's at risk and they need to re-enforce them and/or relocate the location of the build. So we waited thinking Neath Port Talbot Council will be in touch about the risk to our property and how it can be resolved. We waited weeks fearing our safety in our own home . But NPT never got in touch and the exhuming resumed to our fear and dread(the image below is foundations dug and filled). To this day I do not believe it was the same worker working on site as the matter of our wall was never resolved. So again I contacted NPT Planning Committee to find out about the safety of my building. They chose to send me to the building commission about the structural integrity. Although I was bring to light a major issue in the planning application they were disinterested and could not care. they have now submitted a planning application to re-enforce my property although the re-enforcing had gone ahead after weeks of rain, but were we contacted to say this work was happening and that do we feel it is an appropriate defence against our foundations, No NPT were happy to leave us in limbo and we still have no certificate or guarantee that our property is structurally safe to inhabit, so every day we dread if this is the day we become homeless.
|
If the structural integrity of our building was not enough to get the council to actually intervene, You would think actual criminal damages to garden wall, that is by both local and legal regard our property and within our properties boundaries through the tampering and removal of breeze blocks, vandalism of a garden gate that had stood at the bottom of our garden for as long as any neighbouring resident can remember and removal of heavy welsh blue pennant stones in places the property developers believe will interfere with their quality of light although that boundary height had stood for decades and the tampering has been sloppily done with no mortar and clear difference in quality and age of stone see above for these patches and to the left and right of this segment the gate and the missing gate that had breeze blocks blocking use or removal of the gate behind it. During the application of the development we had spoken to Mr. A Woolcock about the preservation and protection of historic feature of our property and in particular our boundary walls. Which the Ward Councillor had ensured us that our property will in no way be tampered, damaged or removed and that this concern will be also be relayed to the development owners. So as soon as the extent of property damages became more we approached the Neath Port Talbot Planning Committee about these infractions and that we needed them to step in and protect us, we submitted this fortunately in electronic writing so we had a record of all comments and solutions. The request was responded to by a Mr Rhodri Griffiths (Planning officer-Development Management), who said that it was not their responsibility to run routine inspections nor enforce the terms of the Planning Approval (see above Email). This was in fact false under Legislation passed by parliament called Town and County Planning Act 1990c. Which states that the enforcement and regulations of approved Plans are the responsibility of the Planning Committee and only the Planning Committee. (Below is documentation of both untampered and tampered with parts) Our wall streaches 44.65 meters in total according to google maps so you can imagine our dismay at it being tampered with, and to put it right is going to be costly. Where is our wall you ask, well it was put in white heavy duty bags or used to line their property at the rear. (see left second image) Mixed in with other debris from their plot, but if we were to recover our property we be charged with criminal trespassing and theft.
|
THE CONCLUSION
I have come to the conclusion that Neath Port Talbot Council believe one of two things, that they are above the law or that they have zero regard for the people they claim to serve. As I started this article I feel that the Neath Port Talbot council is INCOMPETENT to the point of criminal negligence or if I am wrong then it has to be a much more serious case of corruption and/or dereliction of duty. I have given the Neath Port Talbot enough opportunity to even correct one issue during this period of utter despair and anxiety for our property and safety, repeatedly Neath Port Talbot Council has refused to intervene and thus I feel they need to be exposed to the public as the con-artists they are. If we do not hold those in power accountable now how far will this systemic habit of NEGLECT go, when will enough be enough, does some one physically have to be made homeless or die, and yes if our exterior wall falls it could result in loss of life, because a council decided their responsibility and accountability ended the moment they approved a Planning Application and not where the law says it ends?
