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Planning enforcement Maladministration causing injustice
14 April 2008
Castle Morpeth Borough Council unreasonably started enforcement action against a couple who had constructed a self-built ‘timber/log kit’ home. The Ombudsman found no evidence that the Council ever made a properly-considered decision that the conditions that it was seeking to enforce were actually required. It also failed to monitor conditions on the site, and was therefore unable to show that it had treated each purchaser equitably. A couple (called ‘Mr and Mrs C’ in the report) bought a building plot as part of a project sponsored by the Council to promote timber/log self-build homes with high standards of environmental sustainability. The Council unreasonably refused to allow them to use materials and methods that would have achieved all the required sustainability standards. The Council said that it refused because what the Cs wanted to build did not meet its specification of a timber/log house. There is no evidence that the Council ever considered or approved a definition or specification for what it meant by a timber/log home. It took no steps to ensure that all the properties were built to the sustainability standards that it had set. The Ombudsman says “Its reliance on what it calls the ‘specification’ does not stand up to scrutiny. Its replies to me show that it has been prepared to accept a property built from a kit supplied by [a particular company] but which can not reasonably be described as a ‘timber log kit home’. The Council seems to be incapable of distinguishing its sustainability specification from the identity of the supplier.” The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends that the Council should:
Date Published: 14/10/08
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