Press Release - 4/12/11

Campaign for Morden Tavern

Press Release

04.12.11

It would appear that the Morden Tavern application has been dropped from the Planning Applications Committee agenda for the 8th December 2011.

Please find attached correspondence copied to us by Natural England, sent by them to Merton's assigned planning officer.

This may be the reason why the application is not being presented on the 8th December. Clarification has been sought but so far no reason for the deferral has been given.

It is clear from the letter that Natural England agrees with the CMT's position that the legal requirements for habitat surveys have not been satisfied.

“…it would be advisable to conduct further surveys at a more optimum time of year, that is from May 2012 onwards.”

The campaign believes council officers have shown significant lack of judgement in this matter. This raises concerns as to the impartiality and the open and transparent handling of this disputed planning application and the related property transaction by Merton council.

Further, we are aware that the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Protection Unit has begun an investigation into the possible disturbance or removal of a Bat Roost at the Morden Tavern site.

This possibility arose when Reef Estates, the developer applying for planning permission to convert the building and build on the garden land commissioned an industrial cleaning company to enter the site in late August 2011.

The CMT had posted a video on You Tube in early August 2011 to demonstrate the existence of Bats at the Morden Tavern due to constant refusal by council officers to accept the CMT’s and local residents’ statements that Bats were roosting there.

We will continue to hold public officials to account over the many questionable decisions and actions regarding the Morden Tavern.  

CMT

newsletter - December 2011

The Campaign for the Morden Tavern

Central Road Morden [do not write to this address] December 2011

DELAYED!

The Morden Tavern application was not listed on the 8th December planning Application Committee agenda as previously reported. The Campaign understands that the applica-tion may now be either delayed until January or later next year. More details in our next newsletter. Thank you for the huge support with objection letters which now stand at 1,200 plus.

Bats – the on-going saga! (another update)

Our supporters will know that the campaign posted a video on You Tube (Morden Tavern Bats) to prove that there were Bats living at the Morden Tavern. We had received several communications from local residents next to the pub that a roost was present.

The video was posted after council officers had stated that there were no Bats living at the Tavern. They told the planning application committee on June 21st 2011 that a ‘survey’ had been carried out and this concluded there were no bats.

The campaign contacted the company (Arbtech) after the meeting and spoke to the director. He was clear in stating that they had only carried out a ‘scoping report’ and that they had recommended further surveys to be carried out as they could not determine if Bats were present or not just by a walk round the site. Additionally the report they produced completely failed to mention the building in which the Bats were living. The site plan they had been given only had two buildings on it. We also obtained an email from the very ecologist who carried out the survey who stated “in order for the planning permission to be granted further emergence surveys are required (as stated in the scoping report)” and also reported that they had “…indicated that the building had potential for bats to be roosting”.

It is important to note here that the Campaign believes after extensive consultations with experts and English Nature guidance that if the planning application had been approved on the 21st July, the law would have been broken by Merton Council.

The scoping Report has additionally been evaluated by an independent bats expert (BSc Hons MSc MIEEM) and he has agreed that it is inadequate as a scoping re-port and certainly not a Bat Survey as required by the legislation. The Surrey Bat Group also agrees with his conclusion.

The developer carried out a full bat survey ‘proper’ on the 29th September 2011. This concluded that there were no Bats roosting on the site. Case lost you’d think, except that the September bat survey was carried out after an extensive cleaning operation of the Morden Tavern site during the last week of August. It is very likely that evidence of the Bat roost would have been removed at this stage and in fact the roost may itself have been disturbed or removed during this operation. Moreover, failure to protect a Bat habitat is a criminal offence.

The developer requires, for planning permission, two surveys ideally carried out between May and mid-August, the optimum period, although they can occur up to October if conditions are favourable. English Nature has confirmed to the Campaign that the developer has only carried out one survey to date. The planning department have been arguing that the first scoping report counts even when English Nature, the company who wrote the scoping report (Arbtech), the Surrey Bat Group and our own fully qualified ecologists’ say it is not.

English nature have now written to the council inform-ing them that they cannot consider a planning application for the Morden Tavern until two surveys have been carried out after MAY 2012. We wait to see if the council will follow this strong advice from English nature.

It would seem that the Bats have become an inconvenient truth for both Reef Estates and Merton Councils planning department and their desire to rush this flawed and sorry plan through the planning committee. Ironically the council had ample opportunity to ensure that a full bat survey was carried out as we notified them that there were bats living on the site way back on the 2nd June 2010 yet the scoping report was only carried out the day before the July 2011 planning meeting.

It is clear that the law requires the planning application to be placed on ‘ice’ until a second full survey can be carried out next summer. Although the campaign fears that the roost has probably been lost forever.

If you feel strongly about this ‘assault’ on Merton’s wildlife please write to your local councillor and Tony Ryan to complain quoting the planning application number 11P0815.

Valuations, petitions and the Audit Commission…

The Campaign organised a petition during August and September to have the Tavern independently valued. We obtained 1200 signatures and would like to thank all those who supported us.

We had discovered that Merton Council did not obtain an independent valuation for the Council owned Freehold of the Morden Tavern when it negotiated a value with Reef Estates Ltd and is in danger of contravening the 1972 Local Government Act in its duty of obtaining the best value possible for the property by undervaluing the property by up to £1m.

Documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Request indicate that the valuation was carried out by the same council officer who led negotiations for Merton Council with Reef Estates in meetings with no minutes recorded and who failed to take fully into account the additional value of the site if planning permission was granted.

The council responded thus;

“Thank you for your petition. We have highly professional planning and property specialists working within the council. Therefore, we are not currently considering an additional independent valuation.”

The CMT posted the following response;

“The petition clearly asks for an ‘independent’ valuation and the council’s response uses the phrase ‘additional independent valuation’, but…there hasn’t been an independent valuation yet. The current valuation is compromised given the facts. The proposed purchaser was given preferred bidder status by Merton during the leasehold sale and party to information not made public to other leasehold bidders. Therefore there is a clear conflict of interest, agreeing a value ‘acceptable’ to the proposed purchaser to ensure they would be willing to buy. No minutes exist of the ‘negotiations that took place or how the valuation was agreed with the proposed purchaser.”

The process by which the Council arrived at its valua-tion and the murky bidding process that saw one party favoured and others excluded is now the centre of an Audit Commission investigation. We are expecting a report from the Commissioner shortly and we hope it will declare the contract with Reef Estates invalid.

St Helier Councillor Maxi Martin (Labour) informed the Campaign that the Leader of Merton Council has instructed her that she would not be given permission to present our petition to the full council as it could be seen as public criticism of a fellow cabinet member. St Helier Councillor Dennis Pearce (Labour) agreed to present the petition.

Local Government Ombudsman Report

The Campaign has received the LGO’s final report.

The Campaign is pleased that the LGO has confirmed some of the issues which it had raised with them and the contradictory answers given by Merton council. We have summarised these points below:

The council clearly declined the offer to buy the lease-hold or jointly sell the leasehold and freehold which would have raised significantly more value, known as the ‘marriage value’ from the site than was subsequent-ly obtained. The council’s response to this fact that it wasn’t time to sell in the report is difficult to accept giv-en its subsequent behaviour in agreeing to sell the Free-hold to Reef Estates weeks later.

The council also clearly declines an interest from a large property developer whilst at the same time en-couraging and negotiating an agreement to sell the free-hold to Reef Estates. Again missing an opportunity to secure a better value for this council asset.

The Ombudsman's statement then goes on to state that Reef Estates "was the preferred bidder when discus-sions started between it and the council".

This supports the Campaigns charge that Reef Estates Limited where given an unfair advantage by the actions of Merton council in purchasing the leasehold and that this in turn prevented pub companies from being able to outbid the developer. This is in direct contravention to Merton’s pub protection policy L16.

We charge that without council interference there would have been a significant likelihood that more pub compa-nies and entrepreneurs would have taken interest in the Morden Tavern and that it would most likely have stayed as a public house serving the St Helier communi-ty. It is clear that Merton Council did not want this out-come and acted in a manner which prevented it.

The LGO confirms that ward Councillors were in-formed on the 30th June about the likelihood to sell the Freehold and that the decision was taken and signed off on the 1stJuly, less than 24 hours later. 24 hours was insufficient for ward councillors to consider a full re-sponse or consult with local residents. Merton officers do not seem to have acted in a reasonable and transpar-ent manner.

The LGO has found evidence that the Council did not follow correct process in handling the bidding for the Morden Tavern and gave Reef Estates preferential treat-ment. The Council agreed a lower offer for the site than it might otherwise have done - perhaps by £1m less than the site is worth. The Campaign accepts the LGO’s de-cision not to further investigate the complaint against Merton Council given the limited remit in which she has to justify such investigations. The Audit Commis-sion continues its investigation into the Freehold sale agreement.

Say no to Morden Tavern Development - Conservative Party leaflet December 2011