Confederacy of a Dunce - Local Planning Meeting

Monday, October 03, 2005

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The Dunce household received a couple of letters concerning the fate of our local, the Oakdale Arms, which is under threat of closure and demolition:

Location: Oakdale Arms 283 Hermitage Road N4 1NP

Proposal: Demolition of existing building and erection of a three storey building comprising 4 x 1 bed, 2 x 2 bed, 2 x 3 bed and 1 x 4 bed self contained flats and parking at basement level.

Having expressed a view to the Planning and Environmental Control Service on this matter, you may be interested to know that on 10/10/2005 the planning application on this site will be considered by the Planning Applications Sub-Committee.

The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. and is held at the Civic Centre, High Road, Wood Green, London N22.

The meeting is open to the public to attend and you, or a representative on your behalf, may speak to the Committee with the Chair's prior approval. If there are a number of people wishing to speak regarding a particular application it is normal practice for one representative from the group of people to address the meeting.

If your wish to address the meeting I would suggest that you arrive about thirty minutes before the meeting and complete a form, which is available immediately outside the Council Chamber, indicating your desire to speak.

The committee report may be viewed on the Council's website - haringey.gov.uk

So that's a plan for next Monday, then. It's a little unclear to me how the representation by one person works, related to the question "How is 'group' defined?". If it is defined as "all individuals sharing a common broad view about whether permission should be granted or not", then the representative should surely be someone more closely associated with the pub than mere occasional locals. On the other hand, members of the Dunce household are part of a very small clique nearly entirely separate from other users of the pub; our standoffish nature may then qualify us as a group worthy of representation before the Committee. But if so, one of us (whoever "us" may be) should prepare to be heard by the Committee. I have never spoken before a public body like this but I envision a terrible scene: one side of the Committee chamber packed to the rafters with hordes of well-dressed, well-heeled sorts supporting the Property Developers in their efforts to bring "NICE HOUSES" to an area soiled by its industrial past (and more recently, 50 Cent and company), the other side with a few degenerates, idlers and bad eggs who have nothing better to do than support all the social ills that a neighborhood public house can bring. The blustering Committee Representative motions for me to speak, then upon hearing my coarse American accent shouts "SILENCE!!" as I am dragged from the hall, beheaded and dismembered, and my head and limbs placed on posts around Haringey as a reminder to Colonials who try and impose their puritanic views upon English neighborhood culture. The pub is demolished and the flats are put on the market, to be sold only to individuals who work in The Media. So maybe I should just go to the meeting and not plan on speaking.

consume

Monday, October 03, 2005 11:24:44 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)