Planning consultancy admits hiring senior public sector officials
A consultancy in Cambridge advised undercover reporters that the planning officials could explain the complex planning system to private clients while still working for local authoritie
10:35PM GMT 11 Mar 2013
The Telegraph can disclose that Alan Folkes, who runs AFA consulting in Cambridgeshire, is informing potential clients that planning rules being introduced within weeks would make certain councils “very vulnerable” to development.
His staff could identify these local authorities so that they could be targeted by a developer, he said.
Mr Folkes told undercover reporters they employed people “who work in their day jobs for councils … as planning officers, at a fairly senior level”.
The benefit was clear, said Mr Folkes, because “they have this insight which they don’t normally pass on to the public”.
He added: “Our clients get somebody on their case that’s an insider to the system.”