> | Accessiblity Options | Text Only | Text Size: A+ A- Reset | Links | Site Map
LGO Advice Team: 0300 061 0614
Quality and efficiency
Click here for speech assisted browser support
Files with this symbol 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
Planning applications Maladministration causing injustice
22 April 2008
There were faults in Peterborough City Council’s handling of an application for a pitched roof over a storage area next to a man’s home. The Ombudsman says the Council’s consideration of the application was “administratively flawed from the outset” and criticises the lack of recording of site visits, the loss of a letter of objection, the taking into account of food hygiene concerns that are not material planning considerations, and the failure to consider the neighbour’s amenity or the provisions of the local plan properly. The Ombudsman adds, “I conclude that without maladministration this large structure, having considerable impact on [the complainant]’s amenity, would not have received planning permission in its present form.” ‘Mr Leicester’ (not his real name for legal reasons) complained about the way the Council granted planning permission for a new pitched roof to replace an existing flat roof over a store area at the rear of the corner shop at right angles to his house. For over 40 years Mr Leicester lived in an end terrace house next to a corner shop. For several years the shop owner used the rear yard as a storage area. This was covered by a flat roof of rigid ‘plastic’ sheeting which took part of its support from Mr Leicester’s garden wall, which lies at right angles to the building line of the house and parallel to the kitchen window with about 4 or 5 feet separation. This flat roof did not have planning permission. When the shop owner applied for planning permission for a pitched roofed storage area, the case officer ‘fast tracked’ it on health & safety grounds. He said he did a site visit but there are no notes; he said he took photographs but there are no photos; he said he properly considered the application but he said he did not see Mr Leicester’s letter of objection which, although registered on the Council’s computer system, has been lost. Mr Leicester says the structure is so overbearing and shadows his living room to such an extent that he and his wife became depressed and sold their home. The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice in the way planning permission was granted, and recommends the Council to:
Date Updated: 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