Blog archive

They meet in Stratford, usually at the Old Town Hall and members of the public can come and watch them at work, debating the issues and deciding each application.

The most recent committee was on Tuesday this week and one of the applications on the agenda was for works to remove lots of soil from Arena Fields, lowering the site and levelling it to make a development platform.

My job involves presenting the reports to the committee and answering all the questions, or trying to, that all the committee members come up with. The committee ask some very detailed questions and I can go home very tired but pleased that they are very keen to make sure that all the planning applications are given very tough scrutiny, on top of the scrutiny myself and the team and all our consultees give them.

This week, besides the planning committee, has been full of technical meetings and the phone rarely stops ringing in between. This has been a bit of a contrast to the week before when I had a pretty unusual day. That's because on Wednesday I went to Buckingham Palace, with my Mum, my daughter and one of my sisters, to receive an OBE.

This meant all of us fighting for bathroom space first thing in the morning in my house, getting dressed up and off in a taxi by 9 o'clock. Going in through the gates at the Palace was impressive enough: I nearly lost my mum as she stopped to chat to the policeman on duty about how excited she was. Then going in through the Grand Entrance and up the stairs was very, very overwhelming.

Lots of white, red and gold decor, impressive Christmas decorations, besides the soldier with drawn sword half-way up the stairs. All of us recipients had to receive our instructions on what was to happen and what we were all to do. Lots of ladies suddenly realising they had to remember how to curtsey!! The whole thing is very well organised.

My OBE is for my services to local government in Newham (one of the Olympic Park Boroughs), where I worked for 27 years, the last few years managing Development Control and Building Control and therefore in charge of lots of the big planning applications like Stratford City, Silvertown Quays and the Olympic applications among many others.

The Queen asked me about this and I did also tell her that I had moved to work at the ODA. I feel so privileged to have been recognised for my work in this way and certainly won’t forget meeting the Queen or my trip to the Palace.