Nigel,

Thank you for your reply. I will address your comments inline for ease of reference.

On 19 Nov 2009, at 08:25, CllrHoldcroft wrote:

Denis

I refer to your e mail.

Frankly I am not convinced that the meeting was particularly helpful in clarifying the debate. Obviously many of the attendees had pretty fixed views either one way or the other and the format did not allow a great deal of clarification on the issues of concern. However in my experience this is not unusual with a meeting of this kind.

Leaving aside for a moment the particular format chosen, a public meeting of any type will clearly be more informative than no meeting at all. As Southend Borough Council has so far held no public meetings to discuss the airport’s expansion proposals, we can only judge on the meetings held by Leigh Town Council.

If you believe a better format could be adopted, then I urge you to call such a meeting at the earliest opportunity.

I get the sense that SBC has essentially adopted the position of Renaissance Southend in supporting the airport for economic reasons. While you will appreciate that based on my current understanding I dispute those reasons, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to attend a meeting at which the Council explained its position and the reasoning behind it. I am sure that most SAEN supporters would agree with me.

I am unsure why you suggest that the DC meeting has been moved. At present it is my understanding that we continue to work towards a meeting on 20th January.

The “Target Determination Date” is now 1st February on the “Important Dates” page of the planning application. Previously, it was 11th January. This is the only information I have to go on. If the Target Determination Date is not the date intended for the DCC meeting, I don’t know where I would be able to obtain that information.

What has most definitely changed, however, is the “Expiry Date for Standard Consultations”, which was until very recently 20th November. It is now 1st December and as I said in my previous email, could you tell me please the reason for this change?

I am not prepared to trawl through back issues of the Echo and accordingly am not able to confirm the accuracy or otherwise of comments previously attributed to me. All I would make clear is that at all times during this process I have commented on the basis of the advice being received and believing my comments to be accurate.

I wasn’t expecting you to “trawl through back issues of the Echo”. This is why I provided the links to the articles in question on the Echo’s website. As you have not addressed these issues, I will ask again.

You told us in June that:

“NO decisions will be made about the airport expansion, until the results of the joint area action plan are known”

You will find this quote at http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/southend/4452482.Airport_plan__Demolish_church_wall_and_cottages/

Your statement is clear. I have no reason to doubt that you said this and it is a very sensible thing to say. However, we now find ourselves in the situation that the results of the JAAP are not known and a decision is to be made about the airport expansion by Southend Borough Council’s Development Control Committee.

As I am sure you have been aware from the outset, a relevant planning application could come in at any time during the JAAP process. Surely the Council had planned for this contingency? If not, why not? Did they expect Stobart to be honourable and wait for the JAAP process to conclude? You only have to look at the way they have behaved towards Carlisle City Council regarding their other airport to know that this is not something you can expect of them.

Taking the runway extension and associated alterations out of the JAAP makes it essentially meaningless, as I am sure you appreciate. Broadly speaking, the only element of the plan left is the so-called “Saxon Business Park”, which while in my opinion is ill-advised, would clearly not bring the devastating effects to the town that the runway extension and associated airport expansion would.

Regarding your second quote in September from the article at http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/4638219.Runway_plan_imminent_for_Southend_Airport/ :

“Since there has already been a preliminary inquiry, then I would expect an application to be coming forward soon.

“Inevitably, whatever the decision made by the development control committee, the application will have to go to a public inquiry.”

I am still unclear as to what “preliminary inquiry” you were referring to and seek clarification on the application *having* to go to a public inquiry.

With regard to the information requested in your final paragraph pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I would suggest that you submit this request to John Williams Head of Legal and Democratic Services at the Council. It is the Council that is a public authority which is subject to the Act – not individual councillors. I understand that SAEN has already made a number of FOI requests for information to Mr Williams, so you will have the contact details

I have done this, although it took ten minutes to locate John Williams’ email address – I eventually found it in an email from Amanda Barness. As his address is simply johnwilliams@southend.gov.uk you could have just said that rather than writing a whole sentence about me already having his contact details.

I look forward to your reply to the issues raised above. I should point out that I am writing not merely for my own benefit but in order to inform the SAEN membership and the wider public of Southend on the Council’s position.

Regards,

–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now

http://www.saen.org.uk/

Denis

I refer to your e mail.

Frankly I am not convinced that the meeting was particularly helpful in clarifying the debate. Obviously many of the attendees had pretty fixed views either one way or the other and the format did not allow a great deal of clarification on the issues of concern. However in my experience this is not unusual with a meeting of this kind.

I am unsure why you suggest that the DC meeting has been moved. At present it is my understanding that we continue to work towards a meeting on 20th January.

I am not prepared to trawl through back issues of the Echo and accordingly am not able to confirm the accuracy or otherwise of comments previously attributed to me. All I would make clear is that at all times during this process I have commented on the basis of the advice being received and believing my comments to be accurate.

With regard to the information requested in your final paragraph pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I would suggest that you submit this request to John Williams Head of Legal and Democratic Services at the Council. It is the Council that is a public authority which is subject to the Act – not individual councillors. I understand that SAEN has already made a number of FOI requests for information to Mr Williams, so you will have the contact details

Nigel Holdcroft

• Denis Walker’s reply

Dear Nigel,

It was good to have an opportunity to share a platform with you on Friday evening at the Leigh Town Council public meeting and I hope you will agree that such meetings are very helpful to the public in terms of getting at the facts behind the spin presented by the airport. It would be good if Southend Borough Council were to host a few such events prior to the Development Control Committee’s meeting, which I note has now been moved to February.

The extension of the “Standard Consultations” deadline to 1st December is a welcome move and I would be interested to hear the reason for this change.

My main reason for writing is to check the veracity of some statements attributed to you in the Echo as they appear to be at odds with the situation we currently find ourselves in.

In the Echo of 23rd June we have:
—
NO decisions will be made about the airport expansion, until the results of the joint area action plan are known, council leader Nigel Holdcroft has said.
…
“You could suggest the airport is anxious to keep the pressure on the council to make some decision on its proposals. However, we have not yet fully analysed the results of the Joint Area Action Plan consultation which has put forward options for the airport’s future.

“It is an extremely complex issue and we cannot take a decision quickly without looking closely at all the issues involved.”
—
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/southend/4452482.Airport_plan__Demolish_church_wall_and_cottages/

Clearly the results of the JAAP are a long way off as the process has been suspended while a planning application to extend the runway is dealt with. This planning application will determine the most significant and controversial element of the JAAP without even the full report into the second phase of consultation being published, which as we know from SAEN’s Freedom of Information battle with Rochford Council will show that over three quarters of respondents object to both the runway extension and the JAAP as a whole.

Are we to take it from your June statement that the Development Control Committee is to defer its decision on the planning application until after the JAAP process has been concluded? If not, an explanation for this change of policy is required.

You also state in the Echo on 21st September:
—
“Since there has already been a preliminary inquiry, then I would expect an application to be coming forward soon.

“Inevitably, whatever the decision made by the development control committee, the application will have to go to a public inquiry.”
—
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/4638219.Runway_plan_imminent_for_Southend_Airport/

Could you explain what “preliminary inquiry” you were referring to in your statement above?

Clearly you were expecting the planning application to be submitted prior to the conclusion of the JAAP at this point. Given that the JAAP process involves an Examination in Public presided over by an independent Planning Inspector, surely this rigorous testing of the JAAP as a whole would be desirable prior to the determination of individual elements of the Plan (i.e. the runway extension).

While we’re on the subject of prior determination, I note that Rob Tinlin raises this as a potential problem in an email in early October, before the planning application had been submitted. How is it that the suspension of the JAAP avoids this issue given that the Preferred Options document makes it quite clear that both Southend and Rochford Councils support the extension of the runway at Southend Airport. Clearly this is a major element of the JAAP and would feature in the final document to be examined in public before being submitted to the Secretary of State. By taking this element out of the JAAP, the people of Southend and Rochford (and any other interested parties) are being deprived of an opportunity to examine these proposals in detail at the planning policy stage.

As he told the public on Friday, Cllr Alan Crystall will not be able to take part in the Development Control Committee meeting examining the airport’s planning application. Are any other DCC members currently barred from taking part? I have heard that some are. I know, for example, that Cllr Gwen Horrigan has shown clear support for the runway extension at public meetings in the recent past. Are barred members replaced by other Councillors or are their seats left empty? As these are procedural matters on which you will hold records, I should point out that the requests in this paragraph are made under the Freedom of Information Act and I look forward to your response within 20 working days.

Regards,

–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now

http://www.saen.org.uk/

• Cllr Holdcroft’s reply