LETTER: Congratulations to council chair

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The Chairman of North Horsham Parish (NHPC) Cllr Roger Wilton and North Horsham Parish Council, which he leads, is to be congratulated for refusing to accept Liberty's invitation to meet in private (WSCT, 8.9.16, p7).

Evidently Liberty wrongly assumed that when it comes to planning, NHPC conducts its business behind closed doors like Horsham District Council does with no notes or minutes taken of meetings with Liberty.

This was evidenced in a recent FoI reported in this paper (Dr. Richardson’s letter, 25.8.16) where it was revealed that Leader Cllr Ray Dawe and his then deputy leader and the former Horsham MP (now Lord) Francis Maude had met with Steve Harvey the major landowner of north Horsham and Liberty’s MD Andrew Blevins and Adam Walker of Crickmay and Jeremy Hunt MP on 18 December 2012. Neither the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health nor Horsham District Council had any notes or minutes of the meeting held behind closed doors in Whitehall.