Planning Permission - Being aggressively asked to sign of on a project

Case · October 11, 2024

Hi All - Yet again, I ask for your considered opinion.

I’m a recently new chair of a Community Trust in a rural area having succeeded a previous chair who is basically a nice fella who if he told he was a chicken, would immediately start trying to lay eggs.

Now, the externally appointed project manager for a project the Trust undertook before I was a Trustee, let alone the chair, is aggressively pushing for us to sign off the project so the contractors can be paid their final invoices. Our funding came from Community Enterprise funders, council development groups and others. We have identified a number of areas that we believe are incomplete or poorly carried out. She insists they meet the design drawings in every way, and that where there were changes, these were agreed on-site at the time. Obviously, none of those conversations were recorded. In addition, the agreed fixed price contract was changed to a ‘give and take’ contract (?) early in the project without, I understand the knowledge of the Trustees. It’s possible, even likely, that Chicken-Chair did agree to this. She dismissively refers us (unskilled laymen) to ‘the plans’ whenever we challenge her.

That aside, as part of the project, the project team did not get a reply from Planning (Highland Council) to a material amendment to the original plans, so ploughed ahead with the work anyway. They subsequently put in a retrospective planning application, which is in process, but has not yet been approved.

We also have no visibility of the process under which she agreed with the design team and the contractors that they met each of the goals of the project which is, essentially, a car park with new EV chargers and Waste disposal for campervans. I have NO CLUE of the standard process for project goal tick-offs of this type, but I’d guess the Trust should have been involved in this, and we were not. We have simply been told that everything met each criteria as specced.

We are being put under huge pressure to sign off the project, with what to me look like threats, from her, that if we don’t, we may face severe and immediate consequences. The Trust absolutely does not have any money to fight a legal battle.

A simple question. Would any of you sign off and pay final invoices on a project such as this that does not (yet) have planning permission granted? What reasonable questions should I go back to her with tell her why we are not yet signing the project off?

Sorry for dumping another question on the collective wisdom of you lot, but you know how good you are with this.

Signed

Worried of Skye

Murphman · October 11, 2024

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