Glad to see the Councillors up in arms at the unelected officials refusing their application for new
ALDI store where old Wheeler's Renault garage was.
These officials should remember they are the servants of the people; the wheeling and dealing
on planning applications with developers, even for someone building their own house, seems to give council employees carte blanche to "blackmail/hussle" as much £££ as they can towards various council coffers.
ie if you don't offer up what we consider a satisfactory "donation" we'll turn down your application.
Seems to be to be getting close to what'd be called corruption in other countries, though in our case benefits don't end up in official's hands, but Council's bank a/c.
As the Councillor says they would almost certainly win on appeal, and that would cost taxpayers a lot to defend.