Planning “cock up” by Leeds City Council
September 4 2009
The filing crisis emerged after a local businessman sought details on the basis on which a planning officer made a decision to grant consent for a residential development adjacent to his business, only then did the blunder come to light when councillors could find neither hide nor tail of vital supporting documentation.
Failure to turn up the missing docs could render illegal tens of thousands of planning decisions.
Planning Daily reported that the Council’s barrister claimed the mess was: “a cock up, not a conspiracy” but warned: “This is unlikely to be the last error in local government that we encounter”.
LCC will have to pay all their legal costs to resolve the issue, already likely running into six figures.
Image by MELFIRE.
3 Comments
#1 Posted by mr c oates on 12 Jan 2010 at 14:29 PM
we have this problem regarding a application for permitted developement datring back to 2004 we arer unable to contest this application dueto file gone missing this application was granted for p/dev although planning refusal was in place how can permitted developement rights overide planning refusal and attached conditions?
#2 Posted by M Carter on 12 Aug 2010 at 00:25 AM
The reason they couldn't find any documentation was because there wasn't any.
But the judge refused to 'grant relief' on that gound because it was six years since the council officers had failed to get the Annual Meeting to explicitly agree a scheme of delegation. However, the court did ultimately 'grant relief' (i.e. quash the planning decision) because 'no reasonable planning authority would have granted permission....'
The case cost Leeds taxpayers almost £250,000 in legal costs.
But the judge refused to 'grant relief' on that gound because it was six years since the council officers had failed to get the Annual Meeting to explicitly agree a scheme of delegation. However, the court did ultimately 'grant relief' (i.e. quash the planning decision) because 'no reasonable planning authority would have granted permission....'
The case cost Leeds taxpayers almost £250,000 in legal costs.
#3 Posted by mr .c.oates on 21 Sep 2010 at 21:00 PM
REcomments posted 12/01/2010 still no joy from planning requiring answers to p/d overiding planning refusal apparently not only files go missing [correspondence goes missing]letters pointing out planning contraventions answerd by customer relations [selectivly].Letter sent building Control informing breaches in building reg,s unanswered asked for conformation of reciepts [still waiting] this build has to be seen to be believed [how unique is this problem] only case i can find on search of several planning portals must set a precedent IT SEEMS INCREDIBLE THAT LEGISTLATION CAN BE PASSED WHEREBY PLANNING IS IN NO WAY ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY LEGAL ISSUES ARISING FROM THEIR DECISIONS IN FACT DO NOT SEEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING.
Post your comments
Read next: Floods drown Aberdeen
Read previous: St Andrew’s House celebrates seventieth anniversary
Back to September 2009
Like us on Facebook
Become a fan and share
News Archive
Search News
Features & Reports
For more information from the industry visit our Features & Reports section.