Councillor Olly Mead
‘The only time BCC could have stopped it without the threat of legal action was at the August 27th planning meeting. We were told that it could not be amended or have conditions inserted, and there was a lot of bullying of Councillors who attended. Not all Greens are the same, and Martin Fodor voted with myself and Margaret Hickman (both Lab) to reject it. I provided my list of about 12 material planning reasons for rejecting it to the opponents, together with a briefing on how the meeting appeared to be biased, so that they could mount a legal challenge. Councilors were provided with no pictures of what was proposed until the actual day of the meeting, when we were on site visits, briefings, and at the meetings themselves for no less than 11 hours solid. I was shocked by what was proposed, and am glad that I ended up opposing it and speaking against it, but the ability of even councillors to scrutinise it was limited by interested parties higher up the food chain.’