We queried that little Stage I – Stage II conundrum with our contact at the GLA and received the following response:
“The way the consultation process with the GLA works is that when an application is submitted to the Council and validated, if it is a strategic application (as defined by the Mayor of London Order 2008) it should be referred to the GLA for a consultation response (Stage I).
Following deterimination of the application by the Council, the Council is then required to refer the application back to the GLA, and upon receipt the Mayor has 14 days to decide whether to allow the Council’s decision to stand, to refuse the application, or to take it over for his own consideration.
In a scenario, as here, when the application has not been referred at Stage I, as it should have been, a combined Stage I and Stage II report is prepared.”
In the meantime, the Council’s construction contractors have suddenly got busy ripping up the car park and muga – just over the last week actually – and have done a fair bit of damage already. Could this be a cynical attempt to pre-empt any possible Boris intervention by creating irreversible facts on the ground? Perhaps Pooter has advisors from the despised IDF on his staff – We wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.
Check out the link below for more info on the Mayor’s role and his powers of intervention:
http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/strategic-planning-applications
Grenfell Action Group 