Havering Greens Report Reform to Monitoring Officer Over Planning Politicisation Concerns.
Havering Green Party Chair, Mark Whiley, has raised concerns with the Council’s Monitoring Officer after a Havering Council press release appeared to frame a routine planning decision as evidence of a new political approach to planning under the new Reform administration.
The Council’s website described the Jewson Romford expansion as “the first major planning application approved under Havering’s new Reform administration” and claimed it “sends a clear message about our ambition for the borough.”
Mark Whiley said: “Planning committees are quasi‑judicial bodies. Their role is to make decisions strictly on planning merits, impartially and without political influence. When a council press release presents a planning approval as part of a political programme to ‘unlock Havering’s potential’, it risks creating the impression that decisions are being aligned with an administration’s agenda rather than assessed objectively.”
At last Thursday’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Chair, Cllr Kevin Ayres (Reform), opened the meeting by emphasising that planning must be conducted “strictly in accordance with planning principles” and that the committee must act “fairly and in a legally correct manner.” However, the single item on the agenda received only around five minutes of discussion, which Whiley says “if it continues, may raise legitimate questions about whether applications are being scrutinised with the level of diligence expected in a quasi‑judicial process.”
The Local Government Association’s Probity in Planning guidance states that councillors “need to avoid any appearance of bias or having ‘predetermined’ views when making a decision on a planning application or policy.” Whiley argues that the political framing used in the press release “may imply an approach to planning at odds with planning guidelines for councillors.”
“The approach to planning should be the same in every council,” he added. “Impartial, transparent, and based solely on planning merits. There is no reinventing the wheel — it is simply a matter of doing the job well. I am asking the Cabinet Member for Planning and Public Protection, Cllr Terry Brown, to reassure residents that Reform members of the committee will continue to approach applications without bias or predetermination.”
Whiley also noted wider concerns about public confidence in Havering’s planning system: “Residents need to trust that councillors are acting independently of developers and commercial interests. That trust is fragile, and communications that politicise planning decisions do not help rebuild it.”
In response, Havering’s Leader of the Council-Councillor Keith Prince told the Havering Daily:”That goes to prove what a complete waste of space the Greens are and why the people of Havering rejected them.”
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