TWISSELLS MILL OLD HEATHFIELD ANOTHER TALE OF THE CORRUPTION WITHIN WEALDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL FEATURING IAN KAY AND TREVOR SCOTT

Sussex is a glorious county, the so-called garden of England and for very good reason. I've lived in Sussex most of my life, including: Brighton, Eastbourne, Seaford, Newhaven, Hadlow Down, and of course Herstmonceux.

There is so much of interest to see and do in the United Kingdom, and I hope to expand the local geography section as time allows, to cover the most interesting aspects of this wonderful country. Please use the links below to navigate around Sussex with my compliments. If you notice any errors in your travels, please let me know. Equally, if you think we should have included something, or indeed, if you'd like to contribute something, we'd like to hear from you.

The developer at Twissells Mill was going about his business undertaking preparations to re-build an old Mill that was destroyed by fire in the 1930s. He had obtained planning permission to rebuild the Mill with the full backing of the planning committee and the Tourist Board.

The council's District Planning Officer (Ian Kay) had it in for the developer, and decided to concoct a reason to delay development of the site. In doing so the DPO knew the developer was incurring costs, by way of bank interest. He and another (Julian Black) also knew the developer's customers and various grant applications, would be lost, if they held him up.

On the occasion of a planning application to address viability issues, the DPO planted seeds of doubt in the minds of the planning committee, as to the legality of a Mobile Home in use on the site. He did this firstly, to try and defeat the Mill Restoration planning application. The DPO also hoped members would bite on the bait he'd provided, when he told the committee that Mobile Homes had wheels. This is of course not true as the DPO knew full well. Naughty old DPO.

On appeal to the Secretary of State, the Inspector agreed with the developer, that the beautiful wooden building was indeed a Mobile Home as described in the Caravans Acts, but not before the planning officers had succeeded in costing the developer an arm and a leg in bank charges. Is this kind of behaviour by professional RTPI members really necessary? We say not. We say that staff who routinely cost councils and developers money, that should go toward historic restorations, should be made to repay wasted costs (and bank charges) to the developer personally.

The point here is the drastic waste of public money on what was essentially a vendetta by vindictive council officers. Despite, the members of Wealden District Council trying hard to resist spending money of a case they had little chance of winning.

This is called misfeasance in public office. And any cover up is called malfeasance. Because, the conspiracy to force Charles Warren to spend bucket loads of cash on solicitors and an appeal that was not necessary, was a deliberate effort to cause financial loss. Contrary to the Fraud Act of 2006, if the case was to have been heard after this statute became law.