It’s strange that ‘Anna Waite’ is so scathing of and factually inaccurate about due legal process in her recent blog post ‘SAEN’ lodge appeal against airport decision.
First of all, the Oral Hearing is not an appeal – it is only possible to appeal against the final decision, which Mr Justice Cranston did not make. Having got this far, our member pursuing the Judicial Review was hardly going to give up part-way through and turn down the opportunity for the Barrister to make the case in court. We are confident that all of the reasons the judge gave for refusal are erroneous and they are all being challenged.
As for delay, the Airport has yet to satisfy all of the pre-commencement conditions for the Planning Application, so neither SAEN nor our member’s Judicial Review has caused any delay to the process whatever. Had there been no Judicial Review, they would be at exactly the same stage they are now. Mrs Waite must know this, so it is disingenuous to claim that we are causing delay.
As Anna knows, the objections about mounting legal costs are ridiculous. Her Council has spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on the airport in recent years – they contributed over a million pounds each to the station and the air traffic control tower. They even contributed money towards the new hotel before they had granted planning permission for it to be built. All this from a Council in debt to the tune of £218.5 million.
It’s rather odd that the portfolio-holder for Social Care, Health and Housing so quickly obtained the Notification of the Judge’s decision and published it on her website. It is as if she has forgotten she is no longer portfolio-holder for Transport and makes one wonder how much time she has between blog posts to do her job.
Despite her protestations to the contrary, nothing whatever has been done regarding securing jobs around the airport. The JAAP talked of 6700 jobs being created, but most of these weren’t at the airport – they were at the industrial estate next door. If the Council really cared about jobs, they wouldn’t have suspended the JAAP process the moment the planning application turned up. They would have completed the JAAP, initiated the development of the “Saxon Business Park” proposed by it, and then looked at the runway extension proposals. They didn’t do this. Why? Because they didn’t want an Examination in Public in front of a Planning Inspector at which the overwhelming opposition to the proposals (specifically the runway extension) and the weak economic justification would be exposed.
Waite then goes on in the Comments to demonstrate a total lack of understanding of the word “sustainable” (hint: nothing that relies on non-renewable energy sources can be described as sustainable). She also pretends that the Council has “virtually no controls” over the airport at present when both they and Rochford have point-blank refused ever to hold a quinquennial (five-yearly) review of the current airport lease, which is provided for in the terms of the lease, and would allow them to introduce more controls.
On a side note, it’s also strange that she promotes an astroturfing (faux grassroots) Facebook campaign called “St Luke’s Needs a New Health Centre” when she did her best to obstruct the planning process for the Health Centre at Temple Sutton School (which is in St Luke’s).
It is completely astonishing that anybody in possession of the facts would ever consider casting a vote for Mrs Waite. She has demonstrated time and again that she has no interest in the welfare of the people of this town; she does not care whether the projects she espouses will be of any benefit to the public: the millions of pounds’ worth of wasted public money that constitute the current road layout at Cuckoo Corner are ample demonstration of this fact (not to mention all of the other “BS” road projects she has supported). She has been persistently vindictive and critical of people who oppose her despite the fact that they are continually proved right. She must go.
