from: Ron Harvey
re: Conflict of interests 5 March 2002

Dear Sir,

Further to the Development Control marathon meeting on Feb. 28th, has anybody yet bothered to collate who in particular has voted at whatever previous deliberation with respect to the advancement of the Twickenham Riverside proposal? I recall for instance that a decision to exclude an 'open space' option, as especially proposed by Councillor Gold, was voted upon by the full Council. No member sought to exclude himself on the basis that he may subsequently be required to sit on the Development Control Committee.

The immediate purpose would be to explicate the facts of the matter to the Government Office for London, to thereby suggest that if is not abundantly clear to the Secretary of State that a most unsatisfactory conflict of interests has arisen, a Judicial Review would better serve to clarify the propriety of the issue.

For those to whom the matter is not yet clear, when the Committee's vote was declared I especially approached the Committee to demand a clarification as to whether or not they had voted "on party lines". The details were not then absolutely clear to me and "the public would want to know"

The chair made no response whatsoever to the demand but other members did subsequently clarify that the committee voted (as usual) in such a fashion, i.e. six Lib-Dem members for with three opposition members against, notwithstanding whatever righteous indignation to the effect that this would either be an absolutely fortuitous coincidence or else entirely the fault of 'them not us'.

With kind regards,
Ron Harvey

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