Gwyn Prosser
New
Labour
Member of Parliament for Dover & Deal
Gwyn Prosser has three homes paid for
by the state yet he was a member of a planning committee which voted to enter my
property and destroy my home. This action not only breached two sections of the
Town and Country Planning Act but made a family with two children homeless.
In
2004 I wrote to Gwyn Prosser, New Labour MP for Dover, asking for his assistance
in resolving my dispute with the council and explained that my letters to the
Planning Department and various District Councillors had been ignored. I asked
him if he would allow me time to discuss this matter further at his next
available surgery.
He wrote back informing me that he was a Member of the
Opposition Group on the Council at the time my home was demolished and he had a
recollection of the course of events that led to demolition. He didn't agree to
meet me but said that he
would write to Dover Council's Chief
Executive.
Mr
Prosser wrote back to me some time later advising me that there was little he
could do at this stage. We exchanged a few more letters and I provided him with
more factual information but no progress was made. I
got the impression that he was not concerned about the Council's wrongdoing.
During
2006, whilst gathering evidence against the Council, I discovered that at the
time the order was given to demolish my home,
not only was Mr Prosser a Member of the Opposition Group on the Council, he was
also a Member of the Planning Committee that gave the demolition order.
When
I discovered that fact I wrote to him and asked the specific question:
“Are
you aware that Council Officials misled the Planning Committee and the Planning
Inspectorate in order to achieve their aim to demolish my home?”
I
explained to him that this had been confirmed following an investigation
commissioned by the Chief Executive and the subsequent report highlighted
serious failings of both the Planning and Legal departments.
He
didn't answer my question so I wrote and asked him again. Once more he
refused to answer! It makes me wonder why. Perhaps the planning committee
were fully aware of what they were doing and were not being misled. If so that makes them complicit in the
criminal act of demolishing my home.
We exchanged a few more letters but Mr Prosser didn't seem
very helpful. In fact he told me that he wouldn't help pursue protracted
grievances that were the responsibility of the constituent. He added that
if I did attend a 'surgery' he would allow me fifteen minutes of his time but
not time to re-visit the 'unfortunate events of the past twenty two years'.
It is important to emphasise that DDC were found guilty of
maladministration with injustice regarding the demolition of my home by the
outcome of their own investigation.
Whilst Mr Prosser appears to be genuinely concerned about Dover town
he isn't willing to help remedy a proven issue of maladministration and
injustice within Dover District Council.
Is
it naive for a constituent to expect their MP to abhor a proven wrong carried
out by a public funded body?
In connection with the much publicised
MPs expenses scandal, the Telegraph reported on the 31st May:
Gwyn Prosser paid his
brother, from his taxpayer-funded expenses, to carry out work on his London
flat - despite the fact that he lived almost 200 miles away.
His brother, Huw
Prosser, who lived near Swansea, was paid £650 of public money to lay
flooring at the flat in 2006.
The same year, Gwyn
Prosser also made claims totalling £2,782 for work at another flat he owned
in London, even though it had not been his designated second home for three
years and he was renting it out.
The MP bought his first
London flat in Elephant and Castle upon his election in 1997. It was his
designated second home until 2003, when he bought a second flat a 10-minute
walk away and rented out the first property.
He changed his second
home designation to the new flat, but in March 2006 Mr Prosser attempted to
recoup the costs of work on his first flat three years previously.
In the
local newspaper, dated 23 April 2009, it was reported that Dover's MP, 'Three Homes' Gwyn Prosser
had
claimed £91,463 in expenses on his second home while earning income from
letting out his third home. Mr Prosser owns his home in his constituency
and two London flats.
The
following is an extract from a report in the Dover Express of 14 February 2008:
