The Labour committee chair admitted she’d received free Tottenham Hotspur tickets before later voting in support of the club’s Whitewebbs planning application earlier this month, reports James Cracknell
Conservative councillors have lodged official complaints over the planning committee meeting which approved Tottenham Hotspur’s plans for Whitewebbs Park earlier this month, the Dispatch can reveal.
The first complaint by the opposition Tory group centres around planning committee chair Mahym Bedekova’s declaration of receiving a free Spurs match ticket, before the debate on the application began, and then not being prevented by Enfield Council legal officers from voting on it.
In addition, a second complaint concerns the council’s director of leisure and public realm, Alice Davey, being allowed to make a deputation to the committee on the side of Tottenham Hotspur and its controversial application for a women’s and girls’ academy.
Councillors on the committee voted seven-to-four in favour of the plans following the marathon civic centre meeting on Tuesday, 11th February, with the vote falling along party lines.
Mike Rye, a former Conservative council leader and long-time planning committee member, told the Dispatch: “The chair declaring she had taken free Spurs tickets and then there being no challenge [from the council monitoring officer] struck me as utterly bizarre.
“As a [Conservative] group we have made a complaint and that is being investigated.”
Although she did not specify at the meeting how and when she received free Spurs tickets, Cllr Bedekova’s gifts and hospitality register includes a declaration for such a gift dated 2nd November 2021. The Dispatch has asked Cllr Bedekova for clarity on whether this is the same gift she declared at the planning committee meeting and in what context it was offered. Cllr Bedekova has not responded.
Another Labour councillor who received free Spurs match tickets was former leader Nesil Caliskan, who also accepted a lunch meeting with executive chairman Daniel Levy in 2020 – just as the Premier League club was bidding to win the council’s 25-year lease of Whitewebbs Park Golf Course. Cllr Caliskan denied any “bias” towards Spurs as a result of the freebies.
Cllr Rye said: “When I was leader years ago, Daniel Levy invited me to his box [at Spurs] and I said I couldn’t accept when there was a live planning application [for the existing training centre].
“The judgement is, how does it look to the average member of the public? Even if there is nothing wrong, it does not look good and it doesn’t feel right.”
Regarding the deputation made by Alice Davey in support of the Tottenham Hotspur application, Cllr Rye said: “The director of parks offered a resounding endorsement of the application – in my experience this is unheard of. If it was a written submission to say it was supported, that would be fine, but not as part of a delegation to persuade the committee to vote for it.”
The Tory councillor concluded: “I remain concerned about how even handed the council was in dealing with the application, not least because of the declaration of interest by the chair and the lobbying by a senior council officer, alongside the Spurs representation, and on the basis that the [council] planning team seemed very keen that the application was approved.”
Sean Wilkinson, the Friends of Whitewebbs Park chair who also spoke at this month’s planning meeting, said he shared Cllr Rye’s concerns over both the free Spurs tickets and deputation by the council’s leisure boss.
“It seemed to compromise the neutrality and independence of the planning process,” he told the Dispatch. “The planning process should be open and transparent. I was very disappointed by the quality of the discussion that took place and surprised the chair’s admission was deemed to be insignificant.”
Enfield Council has not responded to a request for comment.
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