Basildon Recorder, 28 December 2007

OPPONENTS of planning applications can now only talk at council meetings for three minutes.
Even councillors who are not members of the development control committee face the same time limit if they wish to speak.
   Phil Rackley, a former Labour councillor from Devonshire Road, Laindon, said: "This is ridiculous. It seriously limits the amount of representation a person can make over an application which could have a serious impact on their lives.
   "You can't even get going in three minutes, especially if there are a number of issues to raise or you have questions to ask."
   John Dornan, Tory councillor for Laindon Park, was also frustrated.
   He said: "I will go along to committee meetings possibly representing a large number of constituents. How can I possibly do this given only three minutes to speak? The process is supposed to be democratic.''
   But Sylvia Buckley, committee chairman, defended the change. She said: "The system was introduced after the meeting about Basildon Golf Course when so many people spoke, the meeting went on until nearly midnight.
   "Many people raised the same issues over and over again. The limit is to try to get different speakers to focus on different issues."
   However, Mrs Buckley said it could be relaxed in exceptional circumstances.
   She said: "If a councillor is representing large numbers of people then we can give them longer to speak."

Comment from the Wickford Action Group

We attended one of the first planning meetings when this rule came into effect. This was on the 4th of December 2007 and the two applications under discussion were for 184 homes on the site of Laindon High School, and 50 homes on the site of Wickford Town football club in Southend Road, Wickford.

One of the public speakers on the Laindon application was the local councillor, Geoff Williams, wanted to cover a number of points raised by his constituents, but was not allowed to do so. Mrs Buckley did allow him a little bit extra as a councillor, but he did not have sufficient time to cover all his points.

When members of the public complained about the restriction, Councillor Tomlin, who is on the planning committee, said '..the planning committee at Castle Point only allow 3 members of the public to speak, so we are much better than them"

To justify the gagging order by comparing us to a poorly performing council is disgraceful.