A councillor has said the public ‘still believe the days of brown envelopes exist’ while explaining why she voted on a controversial planning application.
Councillor Elly Cutkelvin said she wanted to be clear why she and fellow members of Leicester City Council planning committee had taken the unprecedented decision to abstain when they were asked to decide on proposals for a three-storey 28 flat block by the canal side in Aylestone.
There were confusing scenes at the committee meeting last month when seven committee members all abstained after planning officers had advised the scheme should be given permission.
As a result the application was deferred and came back before the committee this week.
'No-one knew or anticipated that to happen'
At the second meeting Coun Cutkelvin spoke at length to explain what had previously occurred and said she was concerned ‘some people had been trying to build conspiracy theories.’
She said: “The fact that we all abstained in the last meeting was completely unprecedented.
“No-one knew or anticipated that to happen.
“I need to be very clear we did so all for our own individual reasons.
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“Although there might be people trying to build conspiracy theories out there as to why we may have chosen to all abstain at the same meeting, this committee hold themselves to the the most incredibly highest standards.
“I know that is not what the public believe, I know they believe the days of brown envelopes might still exist or a little bit of pressure from the city mayor might still exist.
“But I have to tell you even as committee members we do not talk to each other between meetings about these applications.”
'We were trying to follow our principles'
She then referred to a residents' meeting she had recently attended with the city council’s only Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Porter.
She said: “I’m very dismayed the fact that we were trying to follow our principles at the last meeting has led to some people thinking that maybe there has been some form of conspiracy theory going on.”
After the last meeting Coun Porter told LeicestershireLive it had been a shame that the all Labour committee had not ‘had the bottle to refuse’ the scheme.
Both he and Labour deputy mayor Adam Clarke had spoken to object to the development and support residents in the area who opposed it.
The application by Maxi Property Development, for a disused former industrial site in Canal Street, was approved by the committee at the second time of asking.
This was despite residents’ concerns because it would overdevelop and dominate the area and because they did not like the design.
Councillors approved it after being shown more artists impressions of how the block of flats would look.
Agent and architect Lee Stanniforth said councillor Porter had unfairly described the flats as ‘battery hen housing’.
He said: “This scheme offers a positive contribution to the community of Aylestone.”
