Planning Department Corruption Too

Some time before we bought No. 56 we had intended seeking planning permission to renovate our old cottage at 11 Newcastle Road. The only architect I knew was a man for whom I had and still have the highest respect, my former teacher when I was a student at the Technical School in Ballynahinch many years before, Mr Cyril McKee. When I told Mr. McKee what we were thinking of doing, he told me that the only proper way to improve our housing situation was to build a completely new house on the same site but further back from the road and at the other side of my workshop. Of course he made a lot of sense, as usual.

Immediately he produced plans of a house which he said would suit our needs perfectly, plans which were not going to cost me anything. I couldn't and didn't argue with that. In a short time he had me holding the large measuring pole from which he took levels and wrote masses of figures into his book.

He told me that he would do all he could to get planning permission for me, but first we had to get outline planning permission from the Planning Department of the Department of the Environment. Some days later two well dressed men called at No. 11 and said that they were from Down District Council's Public Health Department in Downpatrick. One was a Mr. Nicholson. I was told very authoritatively that I could not be permitted to build a septic tank for the disposal of sewerage matter from a new house on the site because the ground in which it was to be built was recently filled ground and totally unsuitable for drainage purposes. The ground had in fact been built up several years previously from low lying boggy ground into very useable ground by the tipping of thousands of tons of good clay from the site excavations of a new Northern Ireland Housing Executive housing estate just across the road from No. 11.

I told Mr.McKee the news that my visitors had brought and at the first opportunity Mr. McKee had me out again with the large measuring pole taking more levels, only this time he was planning to take the sewerage from the proposed new house, across and under the main road in front of the cottage and into the NIHE sewerage system which was very convenient.

Some more days later two different well-dressed men called at No. 11 to explain to me that I could not be permitted to use the NIHE sewerage system because, while the NIHE were responsible for the maintenance of its own system as it was, if outsiders were also allowed to use it, the system would then have to become the responsibility of Down District Council! I did not know until later that my neighbour living across the road in a private house, an "outsider", already had the use of the NIHE sewerage system! I could not allow Mr. McKee to have any more of his time wasted on such a situation, a situation which did not make sense to me.

At that time we had seven children in the old cottage, and although they were quite young, space was very limited. About three-quarters of a mile from No. 11, a customer of mine put his lovely new four bedroom bungalow up for sale. One of its main recommendations according to its owner was that it had been designed and its plans drawn by Mr. Sampson from Down District Council. Then I remembered that it was Mr. Sampson the Chief Building Control Inspector from DDC who some time previously had asked my permission to allow the builder of new NIHE houses across the road from No.11 to use my boggy ground for a dump for the clay being excavated on the site, permission which I was very pleased to give. We immediately put a "For Sale" notice on No. 11 to help us purchase the bungalow.

I gave the sale of No. 11 to John Fitzpatrick the local auctioneer and valuer and an uncle of the solicitor Peter Fitzpatrick who was later to do the conveyancing work on No. 56 for me. John came and looked around No.11. He took notes of the necessary details and left. Before he reached his car he turned and came back to tell me that it would be useful if he could put in the newspaper advertisement that outline planning permission for a new house was available on the site. I was so tired of that episode that I did not even bother to tell John that planning permission could not be obtained. Imagine my amazement when John returned three days later to tell me among other things that he had got outline planning permission for No. 11 to put in his advertisement! An architect had been refused outline planning permission twice over many weeks, yet an auctioneer without any plans or drawings was able to get it in three days!

We visited the Jennings bungalow several times while we waited for a buyer for No 11, it was a delight to see. Unfortunately it was not to be ours. No realistic offers were made for No. 11 before the bungalow was sold. Although I now had outline planning permission for a new dwelling at No. 11 I was not prepared to endure the obvious hassle that such an undertaking was bound to incur. My decision on this matter was confirmed to me when I received a letter from DDC dated February 24th 1976. The letter read;

"Dear sir, Re: Erection of Dwelling at 11 Newcastle Road, Ballynahinch for Mr. F. G. Rice A top outlet septic tank can be satisfactorily sited with soakaways as indicated on attached plan.
Yours faithfully,
G. Jones. DISTRICT CHIEF PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTOR."

I was to learn later that Mr. Jones was Mr. Nicholson's boss. At the time of writing, 1990, Mr. Jones has retired and Mr. Nicholson has taken his place as DDC's Chief Environmental Health Inspector. Not only was the septic tank inked in on a copy of an ordinance survey map along with soakaways in ball point pen, but unbelievably, there was also a previously and properly drawn in outline of Mr. McKee's proposed bungalow with a sewerage disposal line also properly drawn in, from the proposed bungalow to a manhole in the NIHE estate opposite No. 11. The question has to be asked why four professional people from local and central Government departments in Downpatrick lied to me.

Why was I told that outline planning permission could not be granted because of sewerage disposal problems, problems which were not obvious to a qualified architect, when that permission was there for the asking by an auctioneer?

For legal reasons there is much of this story that I am unable to include in the following chapters. Names in italics have been changed from the names of the real participants in this shocking fraud and are fictitious. My main aim throughout has been to tell the truth and I use as much documented evidence as has been possible and relevant in telling the truth while keeping within the law.