Enfield Dispatch's exclusive shows the value of an independent local press

"Absence of a suitable fire strategy"

The vote in question occurred at a meeting of Enfield's planning committee in October last year, the second occasion on which the committee was considering an application to build a 21-storey block on the site of the former Station Tavern in Green Street. Despite unusually strong warnings from the council's planning officers that the proposal was deficient in no fewer than twelve respects - including, crucially, "the absence of a suitable fire strategy" and failure to "incorporate features which reduce the risk to life" - seven out of eight Labour councillors voted against the motion (the eighth Labour councillor, who did vote to refuse permission, was Doug Taylor, a former council leader and currently a councillor in Palmers Green ward).

"Monetary offer...could be 1 million pounds"

At the time Dispatch editor James Cracknell wrote a detailed report about the meeting, mentioning "audible gasps in the room when Labour committee member Mohammad Islam appeared to suggest he had been contacted by the applicant". Though any suggestion of inpropriety was subsequently ruled out at the meeting, James has since used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of a letter to the council sent shortly before the meeting in which planning agent Murat Aydemir dangles the prospect of a "monetary offer", which "could be 1 million pounds".

I don't know whether Labour councillors were aware of this letter or why they chose not to turn down the planning application, but what I am certain of is that we need a genuinely local press which is able to unearth this sort of information and then present it in an appropriately professional way. We are fortunate that Enfield residents do have this and should do everything to ensure its future.