COUNCILLOR JACK GORE

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Ex Councillor Jack Gore - questionable standards

Contact Information

Home Address: 

Framfield Grange
Blackboys Road
Framfield
East Sussex
TN22 5PN

Fax:  01825 890941

THE ARGUS 25 SEPTEMBER 2007 - CAUGHT OUT & FORCED TO APOLOGISE

A long-serving councillor has been censured by a standards committee for his part in allowing two factory units to be built on farmland.

Jack Gore, who represented the Framfield area on Wealden District Council for more than a decade, was ordered to apologise to residents who complained he had failed to declare an interest in a planning proposal which they said had ruined their quiet country lane.

Earlier this year they alleged he had backed plans put forward by a friend to build two commercial units on the site of a poultry shed at New Place Farm in Pump Lane, Framfield, near Uckfield.

They said he should have declared both a personal and a prejudicial interest in the proposals and should have had no part in the vote which approved the plans in September 2003.

The council's standards committee yesterday ruled that Mr Gore had failed to make the necessary declaration.

A council spokesman said: "Mr Gore has been censured by the committee and asked to apologise."

Residents around the site of the units formed the Pump Lane Preservation Group to seek action after the planning permission was granted four years ago.

They said they had gone from looking at woodland to looking at huge factory units and their country lane had become a muddy road.

The group reported Mr Gore to the Standards Board for England because of an alleged friendship with the site's owner Raymond Edmondson, who it claimed was a Tory party fundraiser.

Mr Gore, 75, this week admitted that he had failed in his duty to declare that he was friends with Mr Edmondson at the development control north sub-committee on September 25, 2003.

He said: "I failed to declare an interest. I have admitted that and I have apologised."

He did not stand for re-election to the council this May after serving for 12 years. During that time he had spent four years as chairman of the planning committee and two as chairman of the council.

Councillor Ann Newton, who has replaced him as Framfield's representative, said: "Jack was an extremely popular councillor. Everyone was saddened that this has happened to him. Anyone who knows him knows that this was nothing more than a mistake. He is not the type of person who would abuse his position in any way." By Simon Barrett

PETITION WHITEWASH

Councillor Gore was one of three making up a special panel consisting of Lord Newton, Jack Gore and Eddie Powell. This trio recommended that Wealden should not accept any more petitions.  It is a fact that when a second Petition with 39 signatories was later presented, Wealden District Council refused to accept it.  So much for their Constitution!

Lord Newton later resigned over a landfill conflict of interest and what of the other members of the infamous whitewash team? Since Jack has been caught out we are keeping tabs on Eddie Powell and The Lord Newton, both of whom are almost invisible on the grid apart from Lord Newton claiming a farm subsidy from Europe of €312,391 since 1999.

THE POTTY TRAINER - The victim of Council vendetta, his complaint as a petitioner swept aside by Councillor The Lord Newton (who was later to stand down over a landfill conflict) and Councillor Jack Gore who forgot that it was his friend's land under consideration when speaking at planning meeting. You may care to agree that such revelations constitute suspicious circumstances - where there is no smoke without fire - at least not that often in Wealden land.

Nelson's specialty is winning difficult planning cases when the chips are down. We love it when he catches Wealden out. We call that Potty Training because of the Butler-Sloss High Court decision on toilet removal and then re-fitting, though Bed Wetting is an associated problem within this council involving cost to the ratepayer - where such expenditure should never have been sanctioned, hence, they wet the bed. In sport this would be termed scoring an "own-goal."

Dear Ex Councillor Gore,

As a former member of a council responsible for a great many historic towns and villages, and a former caretaker of the public purse, could I ask you in your capacity of Conservative Party member to be especially vigilant against maladministration within the Wealden District Council.

It is my experience that your council has allowed some departments to run riot with taxpayers money.  Some officers have used council resources for their own goals and as a playground for acts of impropriety.  Sometimes to cover up mistakes, and other times to pursue agendas for profit or personal ambitions and desires.

It has taken me more than 20 years to finally reach an understanding with your council about the Generating Station at Herstmonceux.  I hope you agree that we cannot afford to let situations like that develop again to drain the council and lead to widespread bad feeling and mistrust, no doubt, with attendant local rates rises for honest tax payers. 

You were elected to serve the community, not the officers.  You were elected to run the council to the best of your ability, after consideration of the issues that matter.  It is your duty to conserve the historic built and natural environments.  It is also your duty to seek to secure adequate services, education, policing and health care.

These are particularly difficult times, where public funding is under scrutiny against local issues and terrorism and global warming are serious international issues that should be targeted for spending, rather than waste money pursuing lost causes.

Even as I write, identified international dangers are looming and if allowed to escalate unchecked, may put our country and indeed the world as we know it at risk.  We can all play our part by doing what we do to the best of our ability.

If we run a tight ship with a clear desk, when something important finds its way on our laps, we will be better able to deal with it.  We must conserve our energies for fights that matter.

I would be very interested to learn what sustainable policies your council, and your political party are putting in place, and if you agree whatever has been proposed is effective. I should also like to know if you support the current policies or oppose them?

As a resident of Wealden, I am relying on you to do the right thing for your district.  As an inhabitant of planet earth I am relying on you to keep your eye on broader issues and play your part on the international team that is the human race.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Yours sincerely

Nelson Kruschandl

The Wealden Action Group declared the findings of the Panel a 'Whitewash' and a 'Sham' as seen in the above Sussex Express article seen in their January 1998 edition.  When viewed against what Wealden's chief executive did next, you might care to agree.

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