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Bath & North East Somerset Council (05B15565)

Planning enforcement                Maladministration causing injustice

30 January 2008

Bath and North East Somerset Council has been criticised by the Ombudsman over planning matters at a green belt site next to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and close to a World Heritage site. The Ombudsman finds fault in the Council’s investigation of nuisances caused by the site and in its unnecessarily protracted attempts to resolve other planning issues.

But the Ombudsman does not criticise the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action against the use of the site for waste recycling, which a local Conservation Group considered was unauthorised. The Group complained that the Council failed to take prompt and appropriate action to end the unauthorised activity.

When the Group submitted legal opinion challenging the Council’s view that the site had the benefit of an established ‘B2 (General Industrial)’ fallback position, the Council reviewed its legal advice but remained of the view that it should not take enforcement action. “That was a decision the Council was entitled to reach, and I see no grounds to criticise it,” says the Ombudsman.

Although the Ombudsman did not criticise the Council’s decision that planning enforcement action was not expedient, he did find that the Council’s efforts to resolve other planning control issues at the site were unnecessarily protracted. He also identified fault in the Council’s investigation of other nuisances caused by the site, complained about by the Group. He concluded that, in view of the Conservation Group’s interest in protecting the World Heritage site, it was caused both avoidable frustration and outrage by the Council’s administrative errors.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends the Council to: 

  • pay the Conservation Group £500 compensation;
  • determine the remaining planning enforcement issues at the site without further delay and notify the Conservation Group of the outcome; and
  • review its planning enforcement procedures to avoid repetition of the errors identified.

Date Published: 27/10/08