Wixams council accused of 'racist overtones' in letter over planning application

Wixams Parish Council will be resubmitting its thoughts on a planning application after concerns about “racist overtones” and other comments made in a letter to planners.

The retrospective application is for the change of use of Wixams home’s detached garage to a hair salon.

Laetitia Hogan, a Wixams resident, told the parish council she was “very concerned” about the “rubber-stamped” objection.

She read out a section: “‘Councillor Saqhib Ali, the chairman of our council, has come forward and declared an interest in the application because he knows the applicant. We [the planning sub-committee] believe she is related after the councillor declared the day after he voted that he wanted to withdraw his vote because he knew the applicant for a period of 10 years.’

“You’ve known me for 10 years,” she said to parish councillor Ali. “We are definitely not related, so there’s an overtone there that I find really disgraceful,” she said.

Ms Hogan also spoke about a photograph of a car parked outside the residence, which the planning sub-committee claimed was parked “antisocially”.

“It isn’t Raj’s car, I don’t know whose car it is, but actually [the picture] is pretty awful,” she said. “You would have thought [the parish councillor] would have blocked out the number plate.”

Ms Hogan also said there was conjecture in the comments such as “the police have been involved”.

“This was without knowing who the police were talking to, it certainly wasn’t the applicant,” she said.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be writing this. Do you have no oversight [of the sub-committee] or is it just rubber-stamped by the council? Or is [the parish council] happy to send out documents with racist overture, conjecture and opinion?” she asked.

Ward councillor Graeme Coombes (Conservative) said: “Laetitia is spot on. I too felt there were racist overtones, I’ve also known Saqhib since 2011, and again, we are not related either. And to suggest that, and allegations of bribery in there as well, it was an appalling letter that went out without the consent of a number of people around this table.

“We need to have better oversight on these things to make sure that kind of thing is not done again by an individual who is dragging this whole parish council into disrepute,” he said.

Parish councillor Ali said: “This response has been withdrawn, we will be submitting a new response. I want to remind everybody that we are consultees, we do not make [planning] decisions,” he said.

More information on the planning application can be found on Bedford Borough Council’s planning portal, reference 24/00529/S73A.