East Cambridgeshire District Council (05B01966 + 3 others)

Planning applications                 Maladministration causing injustice

10 January 2008

The complaint

Four residents complained about the way the Council dealt with a planning application that led to the development of their homes on land that was formerly the site of a gasworks. They said that the Council had failed to ensure that the land their homes were built on was properly decontaminated prior to construction.

The Ombudsman’s investigation

The investigation of this case was unusual in that it involved delving into records going back many years because of the significant injustice claimed by the complainants. Many different pieces of Government advice and guidance, and legislation, were relevant and had to be taken into account.

The Ombudsman’s view

The Ombudsman found that the Council had not properly considered whether a condition needed to be imposed on the planning permission to ensure that remedial work was done prior to the properties being built. It also failed to take into account Government advice and guidance on dealing with planning applications for developments on contaminated land.

The Ombudsman recognised there was uncertainty as to what would have happened had an appropriate condition been applied at the time. It was possible that decontamination work might have gone further than the minimum standards required at the time. He added “I cannot know for certain that all the complainants’ subsequent difficulties would have been avoided, but they might have been”.

The outcome

The Ombudsman found maladministration causing “significant injustice”, and the Council agreed to pay £5,000 to each of the four complainants, in addition to fulfilling its existing commitment to conduct remedial works to the properties’ gardens at no cost to the owners.

Date Updated: 13/01/09