Steve Mason wrote to Anne-Marie Trevelyan last month and asked her to "reflect" on her comments criticising the plans, which followed the review by Deloitte, and apologise for claiming that these would involve "increasing the powers of officers to nod through important planning decisions under delegated authority". Last week, Steve Mason wrote to another Conservative, the Hexham MP, Guy Opperman and asked him to apologise for claiming that the Labour administration's proposed move of County Hall to Ashington would cost £40m.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan has now responded to Steve Mason, stepping up her opposition and saying she was "surprised" to receive his correspondence writing; "it has always been my understanding that Civil Servants were to strictly keep out of party politics and avoid any activity which could give rise to even a suggestion that neutrality had been compromised".
Anne-Marie Trevelyan confirmed that she remained strongly opposed to the abolition of the area based planning committees writing; "Planning decisions can have major impacts on people's lives and the process must be fully open and accessible and I am concerned at the prospect of more and more planning decisions being taken by officers under delegated authority instead of by democratically elected members".
She also urged the Labour administration to have a re-think; "I have had a large number of residents and representatives of parish and town councils contact me to express their anger and opposition to these plans. You must be aware of the weight of public opinion against this and I would urge the administration to reconsider its position on this matter". She also asked when the Planning Officers Society Enterprise reports, not currently "freely available", which identified poor management practices as the main reason behind the poor performance of the county's planning system, would be made public.