Chatham's Dynamic Bus Station - A Public Inquiry is called for!

This letter was written by Bryan Fowler, New Road, Chatham and was published in the Medway Messenger Opinion section (page 12) on Friday February 12^th 2010.

Public Inquiry is the only answer.

The controversy over the new dynamic bus station (reported in your paper) refuses to go away.

Questions now need to be answered by Medway Council why they are unwilling to allow residents and other interested parties to understand the issues behind this curious decision.

1. It was as recent as October 21, 2009 when an outline planning application was made to the Regeneration Overview Scrutiny Committee who received it in such a rush, it could not be included in their agenda papers seven days before the meeting.

Isn’t the scrutiny committee supposed to be the last point of review not the first and only point of debate for major regeneration projects?

2. A council officer wrote to overview and scrutiny members by email 60 minutes before the cabinet meeting on November 24 2009, to say that the vice-chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee had agreed to waive the right to call in any cabinet decision about the bus station. Is this transparent democracy?

3. At a recent planning committee meeting, why did its chairman and a majority of members refuse both a members’ site meeting and a public site meeting to examine the implications of this application.

4. It is unprecedented for a senior planning manager to comment before a planning committee meeting that the outcome of the planning application will result in the “best of its kind in Britain”.

5. The planning application is only complete once the council has appropriated the Open Space (The Waterfront and part of The Paddock). The cabinet has decided that objections will be considered by the director of regeneration in consultation with a designated portfolio holder.

That same director presented the last planning application in August 2009 and has already stated on the council’s website that the planning committee’s latest decision is “very good news for the bus travellers of Medway”.

How has this apparent conflict of interests been managed?

Most people would only be to willing to accept £6 Million worth of central government largesse.

Only a public enquiry can resolve this issue – why is the council so fearful?