EALING Council is 'failing to protect the borough’s heritage or listen to residents', according to campaigners.

Residents and councillors say there is rising frustration with the council's planning department who appear to be on the developers’ side and to bend the rules to suit them.

A planning meeting last week saw councillors defer three out of four applications – one to allow a developer to revise his design and another because the officer could not answer a key question asked by councillors three days earlier.

Conservative councillor Jason Stacey, who was at the meeting but not sitting on the committee, said: "A lot of people are upset and don’t trust the planning department which isn’t helping because most of its officers do a good job. “I think there is an issue around pre-application consultations between officers and applicants. At the beginning it’s quite normal for officers to actively help applicants, to point out at an early stage where an applicant is going way off course with policy. Officers can then feel they have a duty to almost defend the application. I worry about this process and think it should be regulated."

Mr Stacey, who has seven years experience on the planning committee, said officers often ‘try to have it both ways’, adding: “When it suits them policy is guidance when it doesn’t, it’s sacrosanct. It’s like something out of Yes, Minister.”

Researcher Victor Mishiku, of Ealing who has helped many residents fight unpopular developments, said the department is repeating mistakes of the past, undoing all the good changes since residents last rose up against it.

About 5,000 residents signed a petition accusing the department of demolishing the borough’s heritage in 1990. In the same year a front page story by the Ealing Informer reported on the residents’ fight against unpopular plans and council changes promised to protect homes and reduce back garden development.

He said: “I said then Ealing planners are not protecting Ealing’s heritage or listening to the residents, who have said again and again that they do not want back garden development. Exactly the same is happening again despite the government changing the classification of gardens from brownfield (such as derelict factories) to greenfield (such as parks) in 2010."

He said some planners are too close to developers and do not communicate with residents. He added councillors needed to be brave and keep rejecting harmful applications so planners get the message.

UKIP councillor Benjamin Dennehy says there ‘seems to be unwritten rule for councillors not to attack the planning department’ and it should not investigate its own complaints.

He said: "I’m not saying everyone is incompetent, I’m sure there are good people. But there needs to be a public meeting so residents can vent their frustrations and we can see what needs to be done.”

Cllr Dennehy has set up a petition to force a debate in the council chamber.

A council spokeswoman said there have been a 44 per cent drop in planning complaints in the last year which are dealt with robustly.

She added: “We have one of the busiest planning services in London and processed over 4,000 applications in the last year. We also have a good record in terms of the time taken to determine applications and the number of decisions overturned on appeal. By their nature, planning applications do not always gain total support of everyone, but our process is transparent and operates to the highest ethical standards, with all interested parties invited to put forward their views for consideration.”

Visit ealing-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/petitions to sign Mr Dennehy’s petition.