Early last month, it came to light that the leader of the Council along with the Director for built Environment had attended a secret meeting with Dr Sahota, Labour's GLA member for Ealing & Hillingdon to give him pre planning advice as he had asked the leader to set this meeting up.
The leader of the Council is not a planning expert and the Director of Built Environment wouldn't normally handle pre planning enquiries. Maybe that explains why the planning committee rejected the application by a huge majority when it came to the planning committee. The advice wasn't very good.
Some residents who ask for pre planning advice and pay for it might wonder why when they asked for this kind of service, that the leader of the Council did not turn up at their site along with the Director for built Environment. Fair question.
They might also be surprised to learn that when this advice was given and an application sent in to the planning department, Dr Sahota sent and email to the leader of the Council telling him to "do the needful".
If you want to know what do the needful means, click here.