Councillor lodges complaint after ‘unbelievable administrative error’ – poor communications meant invitations were not sent out for C13 meeting
by Fanny Charles
Images: Gay Pirrie-Weir
‘Dorset Council has screwed up.’ That is the stark and critical view of Beacon ward councillor Jane Somper after she realised that consultees and objectors had not received notice of the council’s strategic planning and technical committee meeting on Monday 2nd September.
As I arrived at County Hall for the meeting, it was surprising that there were no protesters with ‘Save Dinah’s Hollow’ posters and placards outside the building. It was even more surprising that there were no members of the public or representatives of organisations including CPRE and the Cranborne Chase National Landscape (formerly the AONB) in the council chamber. And the chairman of Melbury Abbas and Cann Parish Council was not there to give a statement.
Cllr Somper, who had notified all the parish councils in her ward of the meeting, was horrified and angry when she discovered that Richard Burden, landscape officer of Cranborne Chase National Landscape, and statutory consulates (such as parish councils), and representatives of the conservation group CPRE and other objectors had received no official invitation to the meeting. The mistake means that another meeting must be held and it will be on Monday 30th September. ‘I was told that due to an administrative error, the invitations were not sent out, so the council will have to hold the meeting again,’ says Cllr Somper. ‘It means the decision [to approve a tree felling order] is null and void.’
She has taken the serious step of making a formal complaint to Dorset Council chief executive Matt Prosser – ‘It is the right thing to do in this situation.’ And she has also written to all her parish councils to tell them about the new date.
‘Dorset Council has screwed up,’ she told the BV. ‘It is ridiculous. It is unbelievable. This is a basic tick-box requirement. It is vital that people have the opportunity to have their views heard.’
Cllr Somper is a Conservative, but she stresses that this is not a party political issue – it is a matter of administrative error by council officers. ‘I am so cross,’ she says.
No regard
She was first elected as a North Dorset district councillor in 2011, re-elected in 2015 and elected to the new unitary authority in 2019 and again in May this year. She says: ‘I have never made a complaint at this level and I did not do so lightly.’
On Thursday, she received a reply from the corporate director at Dorset Council, apologising for the administrative error that meant that people who had made written representations on the planning portal had not been informed of the date of the strategic planning committee meeting.
The text of the letter reads as follows:
‘We have investigated the circumstances of this error, and it appears that the planning officer dealing with the case went on sick leave halfway through the process and when other colleagues picked up their work, it wasn’t realised that people who made written representations had not been informed of the meeting date.
‘Our initial questioning of the course of events suggests that the underlying issue may be one of ownership in that a team leader takes overall ownership of the agendas for Area Planning Committees but Strategic and Technical being council-wide is shared by everyone but not led by one named manager in the same way, so this may have created the circumstances for the error to occur. However, we need to test this conclusion a bit further to ensure it is correct; when we have done so, we will put a process in place to ensure that a similar situation does not recur in the future.
‘The problem with the agenda was compounded by poor communication at the point it became known. Naively, it was treated simply as an administrative error that could be corrected at a future meeting, without any real regard to the public sensitivities and emotions that surround the Dinah’s Hollow project.
‘Fortunately, the error was identified before a formal decision notice was issued, so we do not have to go through a legal process to rescind a notice, we can bring the report back to the Strategic and Technical Planning Committee on 30th September and this time ensure that people are informed of the date of the meeting. We will do this by letter later today.’
Work with us
Parish council chairman David Webber told the BV he had been intending to go and speak at the meeting, ‘but I couldn’t make it in the end.’ As it happened, that did not matter.
He was angry, but not surprised, by the administrative error. He and his council don’t believe that the planning department properly reads written submissions or values local opinions and that important organisations were not consulted (The BV has confirmed that Dorset Wildlife Trust was not consulted in this case).
‘We would like to try to work with Dorset Council to resolve the situation,’ said Mr Webber. ‘It could save millions of pounds and time. But there is a point-blank refusal to talk to us. We say talk – don’t declare war.’
The meeting was called to discuss a Tree Works Application to remove trees covered by a Tree Preservation Order along the hollow. This would be the first step towards stabilisation work on the holloway. The council plans to fell a revised number of 68 trees (down from the previous 90-plus), clear undergrowth and insert bank-strengthening materials including soil nails, to prevent what is said to be a serious risk of a landslip.
The approval for the tree works will last for five years, much longer than usual, because of potential delays with necessary compulsory purchase orders. It could be three years or more before the work on stabilisation actually happens.
Why wait, if it is so dangerous?
Objectors point out that the Holloway is environmentally and culturally important, and home to rare and endangered creatures, including dormice, bats, and 13 red or yellow-listed bird species.
The hollow, south of Shaftesbury on the C13 road to Blandford, may be a remnant of the ancient forest which once covered this area of the Blackmore Vale: ‘It isn’t just any old holloway,’ says David Webber, whose family has lived in the area for at least 200 years. ‘I find it ironic that Dorset Council has just last month declared a nature emergency.’
Both Cllr Somper and local resident Sara Jacson have raised the reasonable question, if Dinah’s Hollow is so dangerous, how can the work wait the three years or more for the compulsory purchase order process?
‘I asked this, and was told “that’s why we put up the concrete barriers”,’ says Cllr Somper.
Mrs Jacson, who has lived at the bottom of Dinah’s Hollow in Melbury Abbas for more than 30 years, told the BV: ‘It seems that Dorset Council is prepared to spend £8 million pounds on Dinah’s Hollow to fell trees and wreck undergrowth by aggressive nailing of metal sheeting. Why?
‘Because it is alleged that the hollow could collapse.
‘And why, if as alleged there is potential danger of a serious fall, are we still allowed to drive through? The hollow has been worn by millennia of feet, both human and animal. The trees shelter wildlife and their root structure is dense and effective in retaining soil.’
