Northampton Borough Council (14 019 741)
Summary
Complaint from a man about the council's decision to grant planning permission for the extension of a café in parkland surrounding a Grade I listed building within a conservation area.
The complaint
Complaint from a man about the council's decision to grant planning permission for the extension of a café in parkland surrounding a Grade I listed building within a conservation area. The man says the applicant, an elected member, was given confidential advice by officers before making his application and he was not required to produce a Heritage Impact Assessment. Despite objections from the public and professional consultees, the application was allowed.
Finding
The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.
Recommendations
The council should:
- apologise to the man for mishandling the planning application and for not treating his complaints about this properly;
- introduce, as a matter of urgency, conservation training for all its planning officer. Training is available from Historic England; training may be available elsewhere. The council should confirm to us within three months of the date of our report that this has been done;
- undertake an immediate review of its procedures for dealing with planning applications which affect heritage assets. It should put measures in place to ensure, and to monitor, that all applications affecting historic assets are referred to its conservation officers and, on their advice, to Historic England. It should confirm to us within three months of the date of our report that this has been done; and
- maintain a record of all pre-planning advice. The record should be made available to the public when any subsequent planning application is validated, If it considers the advice confidential, a record of the reason for that decision should be placed on the public file.
Ombudsman satisfied with council's response: 4 February 2016