Lib Dem Council Leader slams Council decision.

Cllr David Lomax, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on High Peak Borough Council

High Peak Borough Council has moved planning meetings to 1:30pm after the council has been unable to find suitable alternative accommodation for its normal 5:30 meetings with the closure of Chinley site. Now the decision has been taken to move Development Control meetings from October to Monday afternoons. Meetings are to be held at Chapel Town Hall, which is unavailable on Monday evenings. An alternative of moving meetings to Wednesdays was thrown out because it was inconvenient to some councillors. The Council was also asked to look at the availability of other venues or whether part of the Chinley site could be kept open whilst a better solution was sought.

Speaking after last night's council meeting, after his amendment to move to Wednesday evenings was defeated Cllr David Lomax said, "The Council professes to put the public first. Now it means that anybody wanting to speak for or against a planning application might have to take at least an afternoon off work just because the council hasn't thought things out. It now plans to consult over the decision but the time for consultation was before not after the decision was made.

Planning decisions are one of the few meetings which regularly has a large number of representatives from the public. It is obviously a very important and worrying time for applicants or objectors. The council is failing in not putting people first."

For further information contact David Lomax 07560 760503 or 01663 733191 or David.Lomax@highpeaklibdems.org.uk