The Battle with the Council continues
Why do we continue to object to the Council’s decision?
Dear Friends,
We hope you have a wonderful break over the festive season.
Many of you thought that we had given up our protest against the Council’s decision because of Kew Society’s statement that “there were tentative moves towards agreement” in an email sent to members following a meeting that took place on 29 November with the Council, Dose of Nature and ourselves. Kew Society’s website has retained the headline but has now clarified that we still do not agree with the decision. Unfortunately the email has led to a lot of confusion.
We are contributing to discussions about the new lease to Dose of Nature so as to protect wildlife and current users of the field. Here are the proposals (follow link) that we sent to the Council ahead of the meeting.
However, we still consider the decision is wrong for the following reasons:
It will result in planning applications by Dose of Nature for human shelters in the field and offices on the site of the studio which is not consistent with it being a site for wildlife and bodes badly for the future of the site.
Dose of Nature’s objectives do not allow for activities relating to conservation and community events - they have expressed willingness to change them but so far this has not happened.
No thought has been given by the Council as to what if circumstances change and Dose of Nature no longer wish to manage the site or the charity outgrows the site or the Council commissions the services from a different charity. An arrangement that has lasted for over three decades is being replaced by one that is quite possibly transitory. A site (which we are told is worth around £8 million pounds) must be ripe for development should the new arrangement fail for whatever reason.
The Council has disregarded all its policies and procedures to make this happen without community consultation. There was time to consult as the decision (at least in principle) was made in early March 2024 at a meeting between Sir Mark Rowley and the Leader, Cllr Gareth Roberts without officials present. We discovered this from the Council’s response to our first Freedom of Information Request (follow links to see first and second parts) - this surprised us as we had been given “urgency” and the “risk of Dose of Nature leaving the Borough” as reasons for not consulting on several occasions. But there were 6 months to do this before we were told on 5 September 2024.
We have recently found out that the decision was made outside the Council’s Constitution - it should have been treated as a Key Decision which must be referred to a Committee of the Council where we would have had an opportunity to object and to correct the misrepresentations made to the Council.
On 18 December, we made a complaint that the decisions were unlawful because the did not comply with the Consitituion through the Council’s complaint procedure (follow link) and also referred it to the Mayor who is responsible for upholding the Constitution. We raised the issue at the Council meeting on 3 December 2024 (follow link to public questions) when we were told by the Leader, Cllr Gareth Roberts, that it did not affect communities in two or more wards. We disagree as many of our 500 current supporters are drawn from different wards and Dose of Nature provides services across all wards in the Borough.
Key Decisions are also those that are controversial or politically sensitive but the Leader said at the same Council meeting on 3 December 2024 that, at the time the decision was taken, it was not regarded as controversial! This is an Orwellian response - decisions made behind closed doors tend not to attract controversy until people actually find out about them.
On 6 December 2024, our initial complaint dated 16 October (follow link) was rejected by the Council on the basis that it related to the Council’s decisions and disagreement with lawful decisions can only be overturned by the courts (follow link). It took nearly 2 months for the Council to send us a nine line standard reply and it arrived a day after the likely three month deadline for judicial review (as we found out about the Council’s decision on 5 September 2024).
We are considering a referral to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. There are some aspects of our complaint which are about legality - we have seen no evidence that the Council has complied with its obligations under the Local Government Act 1972 which requires Council’s to demonstrate that they have obtained the best consideration that can reasonably be obtained - generally a competitive process is needed to demonstrate this.
We are still waiting for the Council’s response to our Freedom of Information request dated 3 November 2024 (follow link) - a response should have been made in 20 days but the Council has notified us that they need an extension of time of 20 days because of its “complex and voluminous nature.” This expires on 7 January 2025.
Why don’t we just give up? Well we feel very aggrieved that the Council:
Pays so little regard to its constitution, policies and procedures;
Took at face value what Dose of Nature said to them about us restricting their access and believed in its threats to leave the Borough (if they were in fact made); there are some doubts about whether the threats were made or simply used by the Council as an excuse for not consulting;
Deals with our complaints and freedom of information requests so slowly and ineptly or possibly the Council is dragging its feet so that a reference to the courts is no longer possible;
Relies on the expense of organisations challenging through the courts and the risk of having to meet the Council’s costs to disregard its constitution, policies and procedures. We were quoted £50-£100,000 just for our own costs. but risked having to pay the equivalent costs of the Council.
If this can happen to us, it can happen to anyone in the Borough and we need to press this Council to act democratically and in accordance with natural justice. Thank you for your letters of support. We may not win this battle as the odds are very much stacked against us, but every contact you make with councillors and our local MP, Sarah Olney is important.
We will be managing the field until September 2025 and will continue to press the Council for transparency and to act in accordance with its legal obligations and constitution.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah
Chair Pensford Field Environmental Trust
