Have you read or heard about the Couthy Butts saga?

Here’s a brief summary – It’s a building that is thought to be over 250 years old and is the only example of a Georgian farm worker’s cottage on the whole of the Isle of Wight.

At the last planning meeting, on the recommendation of the planning officers, it was decided that it should be demolished and all of the materials removed from the site.

Very confusing.

Why would the council actively want to destroy a part of history, Island history? Perhaps the Planning Committee didn’t have all of the pertinent information available to them?

It’s a long and involved saga that has been running since 2001, so we sat down with Brian Harvey this week and he gave us the summary of the events up to date.

What jumped out, was that Mr Harvey has in the past reported two of the IW Council planning officers, Mr Pegram (reported to the ombudsman) and Mr Cornwell (reported to the head of the council), for malpractice.

These are the two same officers who were speaking at the most recent planning meeting, recommending that this unique, historic building be demolished.

At the very least this must be a conflict of interest.

It’s only 12 minutes long and well worth a listen …

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