Local Government Ombudsman

> | Accessiblity Options | Text Only | Text Size: A+ A- Reset | Links | Site Map

You are here: Home : : News and press : : 2009 : : August : : Medway Council criticised over school sports pitch

What's new

Browser support

Browse aloud

Click here for speech assisted browser support

Downloads

Site tools

Files with this symbol pdf icon 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

adobe acrobat reader

Medway Council criticised over school sports pitch

Archived press release

Date Published: 18/08/09

There were flaws in the way Medway Council granted permission for an all-weather school sports pitch.

There were flaws in the way Medway Council granted permission for an all-weather school sports pitch, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Tony Redmond. In his report, issued today (18 August 2009) he says “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 is at a school on the other side of a public footpath that runs along the bottom of their back gardens. They are 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.

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

  • reimburse 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;
  • pay the lead complainant £250 for the time and trouble involved in pursuing the complaints on behalf of the other complainants; and
  • take steps to ensure that in future it keeps a more detailed record of Development Control meetings than a record of the decisions taken.

Report ref 08 014 449 and six others.