A SCATHING 12-page dossier accusing the council of breaking planning regulations and ignoring public opinion has been sent to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. The document has been compiled by four local protest groups who have joined forces to ask the Environment Secretary for a public inquiry. They allege that city planners have shown a lack of regard for good financial practice, disregarded public opinion and stretched planning rules to breaking point.

The four separate protests groups - Altham Meadow, Poulton Market, Nether Kellet and Silverdale - have recently fought the council over controversial housing plans and claim to have discovered similar irregularities. The dossier states: "Members of the groups had an opportunity to compare notes and were alarmed to discover that what they thought to be a number of isolated examples of questionable behaviour appeared in fact to be typical and common."

It alleges there are many areas of concern including the council's presentation of housing need figures, disposing of public land for very poor financial return, spending public money to make land more attractive to prospective bidders, giving preferential treatment to particular developers and taking planning decisions along party lines at planning meetings where relevant information is often not disclosed.

The dossier adds: "There are many other matters giving rise to public disquiet. We regard that there are compelling grounds for the setting up of a public inquiry into the performance and activities of the Lancaster Local Planning Authority before the situation develops into a public scandal."

Cllr Tricia Heath, one of the names behind the dossier, said: "The new Labour Government has talked about taking notice of public opinion but here at Lancaster it gets disregarded. There have been a number of local authorities recently that have been investigated and we think these local issues also need to be looked into."

Planning Chairman, Cllr Eileen Blamire, said that she could not comment on a document that she had not seen but added: "They have a democratic right to take this sort of action."

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