Cornish Council criticised for planning error

A Cornish planning authority has been censured by the Local Government Ombudsman for approving a raised parking platform without taking all relevant development control policies into account.

Caradon District Council fell foul of the watchdog after residents living on an unadopted road on a hillside complained about the way the local authority handled proposals for a parking platform near their homes in Valley Edge.

This is designated as a Conservation Area, a historic settlement and an Area of Great Landscape Value and is also covered by an Article 4 Direction removing the usual permitted development rights.

Some of the properties there have platforms built out from the hillside to provide parking and other accommodation.

The proposals were approved by an officer under delegated powers. A subsequent council investigation revealed that the official had approved the scheme without taking the planning policy and planning history of the area fully into account. The officer's decision was also partly based on an earlier separate application for another site which had been allowed because of special circumstances.

The Ombudsman found the council failed to properly consider the planning application and left itself in a weaker position to defend any future applications.

The watchdog concluded that maladministration causing injustice had occurred and recommended that the council should commission an independent valuation of the complainants' homes before and after the development and pay them the difference. The watchdog also said the complainants should be paid £500 each for their time and trouble pursing the complaints.

Councillor Bernie Ellis, chairman of the council's planning committee, said: "The ombudsman appears to be clearing a backlog of old cases, and this one relates to a planning application that was submitted in 2005

"In the last 18 months we have made significant changes to our planning services and modernised with a number of new working practices and procedures, which are shown in our latest performance figures."

Read the Local Government Ombudsman press release.

Roger Milne

10 July 2008