Medway Council (08 014 449 and six others)

Planning applications                 Maladministration causing injustice

10 August 2009

There were flaws in the way Medway Council granted permission for an all-weather school sports pitch. The Ombudsman said “I am grateful to the Council for its willingness to resolve these complaints. I am nevertheless reporting on the complaints as they raise important issues about how a planning application such as this, which raised some complex issues, is assessed and reported to Committee.”

Seven people complained that the Council failed to deal properly with the development of an all-weather sports pitch. The pitch was at a school on the other side of a public footpath that ran along the bottom of their back gardens. They were concerned about a loss of privacy and outlook, noise from the sports pitch, and the possibility of floodlighting being installed at a later date.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the Council was at fault over its handling of the planning application for the sports pitch, as it failed to take into account the relationship between the complainants’ homes and the sports pitch, and the potential for overlooking and loss of privacy in their gardens from a viewing area running the full length of the sports pitch.

Remedy

The Ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice and, in accordance with his recommendations to remedy the injustice, the Council:

• reimbursed the complainants for the reasonable costs associated with increasing the heights of their boundaries to protect them from the unanticipated impact from the sports pitch;
• paid the lead complainant £250 for the time and trouble involved in pursuing the complaints on behalf of the other complainants; and
• took steps to ensure that in future it kept more detailed records of Development Control meetings.

LGO satisfied with Council's response: 23 December 2009
 

Date Updated: 04/01/10