A prominent local architect and a former Senator were in the Royal Court yesterday to give evidence in the trial of eight former and current civil servants accused of “misfeasance in public office”.
The group of eight defendants, who worked across Planning, Parish and the Law Officers’ Department, are accused by builder Michael Neville of engaging in a malicious campaign against him during a planning enforcement case involving windows of a historic building that led to his prosecution in 2010.
Three years later, he successfully appealed against the conviction All of the allegations are strongly denied, and a trial opened on Wednesday.
Architect Mike Waddington, who had worked with Mr Neville on his planning applications relating to ‘Buildings of Local Interest’ at Devonshire Place, was called to give evidence yesterday.
He spoke about how he had supported Mr Neville and met with members of the Planning Department to try and reach a compromise.
Mr Neville replaced the windows to the rear of one of the properties with UPVC windows, relying on “accepted practice” that this would be fine if they weren’t visible to the public. He was refused a retrospective planning application.
Mr Waddington described how around the time that Mr Neville bought the properties and installed the windows, Planning had been undergoing a culture shift – overseen by the first-ever Minister for Planning and Environment, as well as having appointed a new Head of the Historic Buildings Department.
He explained how, previously, the department had often taken a “pragmatic” view of cases. It was normal to prioritise certain parts of buildings – like the most visible – and to come to compromises with applicants.
Commissioner Terence Mowschenson, presiding, asked him about the “puzzle” of officers asking Mr Neville to return to timber sash windows, when he had in fact replaced metal windows. The metal windows were visible in pictures shown to the court.
The enforcement notice was “riddled with mistakes”, Mr Waddington told the court.
The Commissioner added that it was “an extraordinary document” with, “on the face of it, many mistakes”.
Mr Waddington further argued that it was common for town buildings from the Victorian and Regency period to have facades with “grandeur”, but that the back of them was “a bit of a muddle”.
Architecturally, he said, the damage to the buildings was done when a box dormer was built in the 1970s – a more impactful change than the windows that the trial focuses on.
Yesterday, giving evidence to the court, Mr Neville described how Planning Enforcement Officers had been “overbearing” when interviewing him, allegedly making mistakes around the type of windows that had been installed previously.
In his evidence, former Senator Ben Shenton explained that he had met Mr Neville to help him.
He said he had suggested “leniency” and that he had felt he had been able to find a solution, but that he stopped after he heard that Mr Neville had been threatening towards Planning employees. Later, he found out that these allegations weren’t true.
The case continues today.
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