An Innocent or Premeditated Breach of Planning

Donna Clayton, a Planning Officer with Shepway District Council owns a grade II listed cottage in Lyminge to which she made several alterations before placing her home on the market.

At a date after she had carried out the alterations she thought she should have applied for planning permission so approached a colleague and asked for advice, during the course of the discussion it was agreed she should and that she should now apply for retrospective permission.

Alistair Stewart, Chief Executive of Shepway District Council is quoted as saying “Donna Clayton has always been aware of the rules and is a good officer. When it comes to assessing Listed Building Consent, the guidelines are open to interpretation. Donna did not believe she needed consent for the minor work carried out and I am confident that she interpreted the rules correctly…”

Are the rules on Listed Building Consent “open to interpretation?” If they are it is only by the planning officers not the applicant who is in a position to make that interpretation and in this case the Planning Officer and Applicant were one in the same. If an applicant who was not a Planning Officer made a similar interpretation would they have received planning consent, from historical articles in the Folkestone newspapers the answer as to be no! There are a number of cases where owners of listed or buildings in a conservation area have carried out work and been ordered to reinstate.

The Planning Regulations, we are told, are very clear and before you commence alterations particularly on listed buildings or in a conservation area you should seek advice and if necessary consent as breaches of planning regulations can lead to an unlimited fine or up to a year in prison.

On the Monday soon after this matter was reported in the Folkestone Herald the planning committee sat to hear Donna Clayton’s retrospective planning application on her grade II listed home for work she had already carried out. What was unusual about this application is it was from a Planning Officer employed by Shepway District Council in front of a Planning Committee that normally only sites on a Tuesday every third week.

There may be many reasons why a Planning Committee stat and heard this particular application on a Monday, there may be many very good reasons why this application appears to have been granted on a Nod and a Wink. There are also many exceedingly better reasons why this application should have been sent elsewhere for independent adjudication.

It should have been sent to another Council independent of Shepway or at least to Lyminge Parish Council for them to make the decision or to the Magistrates Court for them to decide.

Mrs Clayton is an employee of Shepway District Council and as an employee in the planning department we the Council Tax Payer could suspect nepotism in respect that the Planning Committee sat possibly a day earlier than they would normally sit or even three weeks and a day earlier than normal and that planning permission was granted.

We should also be concerned that an experienced planning officer made a mistake, that no censure appears to have been made, and that this minor mistake reflects on the quality of staff employed by Shepway District Council.

We should also be suspicious of Donna Clayton’s intentions; we know she intended to sell her home once the improvements had been carried out, she is a very experienced planning officer, as confirmed by Alistair Stewart, Chief Executive of Shepway District Council, was it Donna Clayton’s intention to provide Shepway District Council Planning Committee with a fait a comply.

As a very experienced planning officer Donna Clayton would have known she may have difficulty selling her home if the buyer’s surveyor or solicitor were concerned about the recent alterations to the property and searches revealed that planning consent had not been granted. Without an independent investigation we will never know whether Donna Clayton was taking advantage of her position and colleagues to achieve planning consent and a sale at any cost or it was a genuine mistake.

Shepway District Council, for the sake of propriety, should have suspended Donna Clayton and sent the matter to Folkestone Magistrates Court for their independent view.

Roger De Haan Speaks

Roger De Haan in the Business Pages of the Kent Messenger explains his intentions for the Creative Quarter of Folkestone, Folkestone Harbour and Tontine Street, where he speaks of legacies, Master Plans, inappropriate designs and his need for absolute control.

Many historical figures have had Master Plans, from Roman Emperors, Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Hitler, all wanting to rule without reference to the people and at the expense of many. Mr. De Haan says he wants to reinvent Folkestone, to make it a much more enjoyable place to live and work and go to school – a successful community. He complains of delays, a lack of vision from officials that cannot see what he sees and those that put money before quality – easily said by a man with extreme wealth. He dismisses those that are concerned about a businessman becoming involved in community issues.

De Haan’s language and manner autocratic, tyrannical and arrogant, something you can get away with when you are the Chairman of a company talking to those you employ. When dealing with ordinary people whose wages you do not pay requires a little more subtlety.

He complains of poor education and speaks of joining Folkestone East & West together, to many a euphemism for ‘we have run out of building space with sea views in the West End, the harbour looks nice.

The language used in the interview would suggest Mr De Haan has lost touch with reality and is about to fall of his trolley.

Mr. De Haan has not suddenly become a wealthy man, he has always been a wealthy man, he has suddenly become an extremely rich man, he and his brothers have wanted for little in life, a rich man who when he and his brothers disagreed about SAGA he appears to have brought them off. Mr De Haan is a man use to getting his own way no matter what the cost. Not a bad trait in a businessman but why now, why this sudden Philanthropic desire

At any time over the past thirty years Mr De Haan could have invested in the Old High Street, remodelling it several times, he could have done the same with Tontine Street and remained a multi millionaire. He could have built several schools from loose change, so why now? Why do you mr De Haan want to get involved in social issues you have little understanding off and have had even less involvement in, whatwas it that suddenly turns you into a man that wants to turn Folkestone into utopia?

If you built affordable rented flats for young couples, small retirement style flats at affordable rents for old ladies instead of the dog kennels the council provides. If you invested in education, training and jobs and passed on your experience through an educational foundation I feel sure, Folkestone would have a second statute on the Leas paid for by an adoring public with the inscription ‘De Haan He Got Involved’

The Dragons Den

If you are an inventor or have a business that wants to expand you have probably taken time out to watch BBC2s reality TV show The Dragons Den where four extremely rich and successful self made business men and women invest in new businesses.

Prospective business are invited to make a presentation to the four dragons, the dragons, people many of us have never heard of and are extremely thankful that we do not have them as neighbours decide if they are going to invest in the business after a short presentation.

It does not take too long before you have to question why these four extremely wealthy individuals with personal fortunes in excess of two or three hundred million want to show the world how obnoxious and lacking in character you need to be to achieve that level of wealth. You also have to marvel at how these very experienced business people can make a balanced and viable judgement based on very limited information.

You soon realise that what should have been an interesting and informative programme is low-level entertainment attracting viewers by its negativity and that the majority of inventions have little commercial value, that most business owners have a misguided view of their businesses true value, future sales and finances and that most investors want more than a minority shareholding in your business in return for their hard earned cash.

If the programme gave you all that information then the BBC are doing a better job than we gave them credit, if it did not then why not make an application to the Dragons and subject yourself to ridicule that would be bullying in a playground and the subject of an ASBO in the High St, at least you will provide us with entertainment and the Dragons with a little blood sport.

If you are a budding entrepreneur you will soon realise that the majority of new businesses fail within a year, those that appear to succeed are financed from personal wealth, others are second generation where a son or in-law has taken over the management or the business has taken on professional management.

Small growing business needs investment, that can be self-financed from borrowing but the lender will require security, normally equity in your home. Many small businesses do not have or are unwilling to risk that form of security so an investor is the next best alternative.

There are several organisations that can arrange introductions to potential investors including business link and several marriage bureaus in most locations that can be found through your local Chamber of Commerce, Library or Council.

Though the Dragons Den gives the impression that potential investors require little information and a good story the reality is any potential investor will require historical information as well as predictions.

When seeking an investor prepare yourself for several meetings, as it is not your money but someone else’s hard earned cash. Ask you solicitor to prepare a non-disclosure document before you start handing over sensitive information. Make sure your financial predictions are both accurate and realistic and make sure the same applies to marketing information and plans, one minor error may cause your potential investor to become suspicious of your other predictions. Plan your meeting and stick to your plan, practice your presentation.

Desperation and desire for the cash can blinker your decision when agreeing to take on an investor, treat your potential investor as if they were a Venture Capital Company, they will want a reasonable return on their money, a way out at some point during the partnership and make sure the investor can provide something more than the money, this could be expertise that can be called on when required or even hands on help. Be prepared to give away a larger percentage of your business than you first envisage, you can make this a mixture of ordinary and preferential shares if you are a limited company and most important of all make sure you have agreed how the business will be valued when it is time to buy the investors share back.

Finally, make sure you like and can get on with your potential investor, there is nothing worse than working with someone you do not get on with knowing there is nothing you can do about it for several years.

A former Chairman of a private commercial investment company wrote the Article “The Dragons Den” with offices in the UK, Jersey, Switzerland and the USA, providing advice and assistance to Governments, Local Government, International Businesses, Professional Football Clubs and Stars of Screen and TV.

An apology for Slavery

I was having a drink with a friend I had known for some years, we were speaking of childhood, in all the time I had known him I never knew where he spent his childhood so asked where he came from and was very surprised by his bitter answer “My great grandparents were taken as slaves”.

My response may have been a little trite and explained that my mother has the same problem and she blames the Egyptians, Romans, Russians, Germans and several dozen other countries for over three thousand years of slavery or prejudice.

“Your mother is black?” Asked my black friend “No, Jewish, you have only had a couple of hundred years of being a slave and suffering racial prejudice. My family have had over 3,000 years of the same treatment and it continues today, even you, who should know better do it – a Jewish joke, a dig about being mean, running out of gas, someone whose rich being a Jew Boy but I forgive you and do not ask for an apology so why are you?

Because it was wrong, was my friend’s response. Yes slavery then and now was and is wrong but why is it only the white man that has to apologise and why the man who has been dead around 150 to 200 years. If there is such a place as heaven then surely the slave owner and slave would have forgiven each other by now? Why not ask the black African tribes who took slaves and sold them to the Arab and white man for an apology.

My mother, now an old lady, was in a shop struggling to get her coat on when a young teenage girl came over to help her and an elderly woman, younger than my mother, guided her down several steps. Both women were German and my mother thanked them and commented on how helpful foreigners were, “If they had been English, they would have ignored me or stolen my coat and pushed my down the stairs.”

I explained to my mother that the women that had helped her were German and seventy years ago would have been helping her off with her cloths and pushing her down the stairs, “didn’t she hate them?

My mother explained that she hated the Nazis, “but how can I hate someone whose father, grandfather or great grandfather did something their children could not control, there comes a time when you have to put it behind you and get on with life.”

Crimes against my mother’s race were perpetrated by many nations for several thousand years and continue to this day yet she does not hold the peoples responsible for those atrocities but the individuals, many of whom are dead. My father was English, can he or I be held responsible for the actions of people we had no control over, people that were in the minority. If you can then my mother should be asking the Egyptians, Italians, and Russians for an apology and compensation, if not money surely better treatment say a nice house by an Italian lake or a bit of cash for the time spent constructing the pyramids at today’s builders labour rate which would surely see her through retirement.

Slavery is regrettable, it should never have happened but it did in an age where such things were acceptable and so long ago the people concerned are no longer with us and cannot be held to account. Any apology my peers and I could offer would be empty and of no importance. We can regret that slavery was part of our history, that serfdom was part of out history. The Native American Indian probably regrets that slavery was part of his culture though slavery continues on the African continent between Black and Arab tribes where there appears to be little regret.

Tip: If you are ever going to be a slave make sure your master is Jewish, though the sign of a Jewish Slave is a little painful, having your ear nailed to a door, the Jewish Slave Master is obliged to treat you like his family so good food, wine, a day off a week and loads of holidays.