South Hams District Council (06B00102)

Planning enforcement                Maladministration causing injustice

10 April 2007

South Hams District Council’s failure to enforce against residential use of a converted garage after a Planning inspector had dismissed an appeal against its refusal of planning permission. The Ombudsman recommends the Council to pay the complainant £500 plus a sum equal to any loss of value to his home caused by the new residence.

‘Mr Stanley’ (not his real name for legal reasons) lives in a converted barn in a rural setting. He complains that the Council’s failure to take appropriate and timely enforcement action against residential use of a garage on the neighbouring property has allowed the creation of a separate dwelling, and that this had a negative impact on his amenity.

The converted garage is approximately 18 metres from his home and separated from it by a boundary wall. A new access drive for the converted garage runs within one metre of the wall at the closest point. Vehicle noise as well as every-day domestic activity causes the negative effects foreseen by the Planning Inspector in 2001, when he rejected an appeal against the Council’s refusal of an application for planning permission to convert the garage into a separate residence.

The Ombudsman finds that the Council failed to consider taking enforcement action after the Inspector dismissed the appeal in October 2001. Had enforcement action been taken at the time, no immunity could have been claimed, and the residential use would not have become established.

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

• obtain valuations of Mr Stanley’s property before and after the creation of the separate unit of accommodation and compensate him for any difference; and
• pay £500 to Mr Stanley in recognition of his costs, the anxiety and aggravation he has experienced, and his time and trouble in making his complaints.

Date Published: 20/10/08