Peak District National Park Authority (05C03504)

Planning enforcement                Maladministration causing injustice

17 May 2006

‘Mr Bishop’ (not his real name for legal reasons) complained that the Authority failed to take action about breaches of planning control at a wildlife centre near his home.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the Authority’s officers had failed to carry out regular monitoring of the site when permission to change its use was first granted, despite providing a written assurance to the previous Ombudsman about this. The fact that, in 1995, the proprietor sought to discuss with the Authority the construction of an overflow car park should have alerted it to the possibility that the restriction it had placed upon numbers attending the centre was being breached.

The Ombudsman considered that, even so, enforcement action may not have been justified before late 1999, and by September 2001 the Authority had resolved to take action.

It took more than four years for the council to resolve the matter, which it did by issuing a new planning permission. The Ombudsman said this was “too long by any reasonable measure” and found the delay was maladministration causing injustice to Mr Bishop because of the period of prolonged uncertainty that he and his wife have endured.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends that the Authority should:

• pay Mr Bishop £750; and 
• report to the Ombudsman within three months on how it will monitor the conditions in future.
   

Date Published: 16/01/09