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Tower vote
legal says law chief
LABOUR planning chief Councillor Heather Johnson will
not face an investigation into her controversial vote which
sealed the go-ahead to a multi-million pound tower block overlooking
Regent’s Park.
Borough solicitor Alison Lowton has written to Tory councillors
who had complained about the vote, insisting Clr Johnson had
acted properly and would not face a probe.
Cllr Johnson, chair of Camden’s lanning committee, cast
the deciding vote in favour of architect Sir Terry Farrell’s
redevelopment of a massive site covering parts of Osnaburgh
Street, Longford Street, Euston Road and Albany Street.
She was criticised because she is a director of the West Euston
Parntership, a public and privately-funded regeneration body,
which supported the proposals. The developers, British Land,
are listed as funders of the WEP.
Cllr Johnson did declare an interest at the meeting but insists
that it was not prejudicial and did not prevent her from voting
for the scheme, which was opposed by conservationists and many
residents.
Richard Simpson, chairman of the Regent’s Park Conservation
Area Committee, which led opposition to the plans, is consulting
lawyers over whether he should make a separate complaint.
In her letter, Ms Lowton wrote that the code that governs councillors’
conduct allowed Cllr Johnson to vote because she had been appointed
to the partnership by the Town Hall, had distanced herself from
the application until casting the final vote and the partnership
was not, in any case, the applicant. |
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