A web of illiteracy and officialdom: welcome to Hackney planning

From Building Design:

All architects will be familiar with the frustration of dealing with local planning departments, so perhaps readers will take pity on a fellow professional who has had a three-month battle with Hackney Council over photocopied signatures and illiterate officialese.

In January, Charles Thomson of Rivington Street Studio was bewildered to discover that a planning application he had submitted was invalid because the signature on it was photocopied, which the council claimed did not constitute a legal document.

He wrote back saying: “Can you confirm to me where you ask for a unique signature and how you determine whether a signature is unique or not? Is this a visual analysis or do you have a specialist piece of equipment? Are you familiar with either a) the attempts by Hackney to develop a user-friendly planning department, or b) the works of Kafka?

“I am enclosing 20 individually signed copies of the front page of the planning application (on the basis that you will almost certainly need more than the three requested, that you may want to verify the signature and that you can afford to lose half the pages and still have spare copies).”

In a separate letter, he wrote to Hackney’s head of planning, Sue Foster, to complain about spelling and grammatical errors in the council’s original letter.

Thomson wrote: “Our postcode is misspelt (not a big issue). ‘Vehicular’ is spelt ‘velicular’. ‘Advise’ is spelt ‘advice’. As this is presumably a computer-generated letter, spelling should be correct. You state ‘your application is invalid for the following reason(s)’ and then don’t give the reasons. The wording, also presumably computer-generated, is ‘application forms in original ink, signature, not photocopied’. This is not grammatical and could mean a) that all copies of the form have to be completed in original ink or b) that none of the forms should be completed in original ink.”

At the time of going to press, Thomson had yet to receive a response. He said: “Bureaucracy in the system allows for poorly written documents to be passed through from planners and they use these rather peculiar devices from time to time as a way of apparently just trying to delay the whole process.”

Hackney Council refused to comment.

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London council criticised for planning 'chaos'

From the Planning Portal:

The London Borough of Hackney has been recommended to pay £11,000 plus legal costs by the Local Government Ombudsman after a series of planning errors forced the premature closure of a factory.

At the time the council acknowledged that its planning department was "in chaos", according to the official report into the events surrounding the complaint.

At the centre of this case was a long-established furniture-polishing business, run by the complainant from a single-story industrial unit with three and four-story buildings on either side, previously used as flatted factories or for warehousing.

First, the council decided to grant planning permission for the conversion of the building to the west of the unit. A developer wanted to convert the building into flats and workshops.

The complainant was notified of the plan and the proposed consent was subject to a legal agreement requiring the developer to undertake works to address pollution from the factory, chiefly fumes.

Subsequently, the development was implemented but without the agreement being signed, the works done or a permission being issued.

The council then considered a planning application for a similar conversion on the other side of the factory.

In granting permission for this scheme, the council failed to consider the impact of the factory or realise it was there.

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Hackney Worst Council in England

From the Evening Standard:

Hackney is the worst council in England for the second year in a row.

The east London borough, run by a directly-elected Labour mayor, has again come bottom of official league tables.

It is classed as "poor" by the Audit Commission alongside Lambeth, Waltham Forest and seven other local authorities in England.

But it is the only council to get only one point - the lowest possible score - for both its ability to improve and the quality of its services.

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Criticisms over baby's death

From the BBC:

Social workers at an east London council have been criticised by a judge who heard that a baby died only six days after it had been taken off an "at risk" register.

Tyrell Rowe, who was 19-months old, died in hospital on 17 October from brain damage after being repeatedly punched in the face.

The Old Bailey heard that after his death a number of other broken bones were discovered which had been caused in the previous two months.

Hackney Council social services had been supervising the baby, but had not examined him during that period.

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Hackney poll-fix councillors jailed

Sandra Laville in the Daily Telegraph.

TWO councillors were jailed yesterday for their part in the country's largest vote-rigging conspiracy, which "betrayed democracy" in one of the most deprived areas of Britain.

Isaac Liebowitz, a Conservative, and Zev Lieberman, a Liberal Democrat, raised enough bogus votes to change the course of the 1998 municipal elections in Hackney, east London, by robbing Labour of a stronghold ward. The men created non-existent voters, registered electors at addresses that did not exist and tricked elderly women into signing away their vote.

Special Branch officers, who spent 18 months investigating the matter, described it as "the largest attempt to subvert the democratic process" that they had come across. Judge Jeremy Connor sentenced Liebowitz, 35, to six months in jail and Lieberman, 29, to four months at Wood Green Crown Court, north London, yesterday.

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Hapless Hackney faces £40m meltdown

Peter Hetherington in the Guardian:

Rubbish piles up, hundreds face rent arrears misery as officials from other areas try to help sort out years of infighting and incompetence

Rubbish piled high in black bags and boxes outside houses and shops awaits the elusive council dust cart. The grubby streets, swirling with the remains of bursting refuse sacks and last week's takeaways, are rarely swept. "It's easier to spot the rats than find the binman," jokes an elderly woman, laden with shopping bags, as she stumbles between the high rises.

Around the tower blocks, in an area dominated by council housing, the walkways are crumbling and the window frames rotting. "In 20 years we haven't had a lick of paint," yells Rose Richardson, a 78-year-old who chairs a community association on the Trelawney estate. "They make promises, but they always put it back. They treat us terribly badly."

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