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Planning applications Maladministration causing injustice
11 July 2007
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Council approved a planning application for new village homes on land designated as ‘greenfield’, and decided to redesignate the site as ‘brownfield’, contrary to Government definition and its own policies. In his report the Ombudsman criticises the Council’s decision making, although, had the matter been dealt with properly, a smaller housing scheme might still have been approved on the site. The Council has accepted his criticism and agreed to follow his recommendations to improve its procedures, apologise and pay compensation to the complainants, who lived next to the application site. ‘Mr and Mrs Able’ (not their real names for legal reasons) moved to a village house next to a plot of greenfield land that had recently been used for agriculture. The Council approved a planning application for six houses on this site, and members decided that they could redesignate it as brownfield land, thus bringing the disused stockyard area into residential use. This was contrary to the Government’s definition of brownfield land, to the Council’s own adopted policies, and to the recommendation of the planning officers who had assessed the site. However, it is possible that, had members considered the matter properly, consent might have been given for a more modest scheme of five houses or fewer that accorded with the Council’s adopted policy position. The Ombudsman finds maladministration, and the Council has accepted his criticisms of its decision-making process and has offered to follow his recommendations to remedy the injustice. It has agreed to:
Date Published: 17/10/08
are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download