Councillors Accused of Putting Local Democracy at Risk After Heated Exchange at Planning Meeting

Councillors on the Eden area planning committee have been accused of putting the “nail in the coffin” of local democracy and their credibility after approving five “controversial” planning applications, claims an environmental campaigner.

Westmorland and Furness Council's Eden local area planning committee meeting held this week considered five planning applications for the Omega site with four of the applications considered by the committee over four years old having been submitted in 2020 to the former Eden District Council and not received a decision until this week.

Former town councillors and Fresh AIR for Penrith campaigner, Jeff Thomson made verbal objections to the applications at the committee meeting on Wednesday 9th April, but said "The councillors were not interested in hearing local community concerns about expansions at the Omega Proteins plant, on the edge of west Penrith”.

He claims the councillor’s actions “have put local democracy at risk."

The claims come after a heated exchange broke out between Thomson and the Planning committee Chair Cllr Simpkins.

Thomson also said three of the committee councillors had previously visited the plant, met the company planning agent and the company owner, but failed to declare this before the meeting.”

Cllr Simpkins interrupted Mr Thomson saying

“Stick to the agenda. You're talking about that. We're not talking about planning officers or anybody else visiting the site.”

 “This is not the venue for putting forward what you're putting forward”

A council officer interjected to outlined the council policy on public speaking rules at planning meeting and said “if they don't abide by that, they will not be allowed to speak.”

Cllr Simpkins then asked Thomson “Do you want to stick to the item or do you want to terminate your speech?” 

It has emerged that Thomson has lodged councillor code of complaints against three members of the planning committee including the Eden planning chair Cllr Simpkins, along with Cllr McCall and Cllr Baker with the code of conduct cases still pending determination by Westmorland and Furness Council.

Thomson said “Their planning approval decisions put the 'nail in the coffin' of local democracy and their credibility as councillors.”

Councillors unanimously passed all five applications that included an engineering shed a roof to cover equipment a hard standing area for vehicles along with a storage shed.

Following the planning meeting the company said it was “Delighted that our planning applications for our Penrith site have been approved” by Westmorland and Furness Council. “These developments will directly support our state of the art abatement technology, support our staff safety and help us effectively manage our environmental commitments.”