LGO pans district council for losing planning control over airfield

The Local Government Ombudsman has accused a council of “an extreme and most serious failure of planning administration”.

Following an investigation, Anne Seex said planning officers at Hambleton District Council had failed to exercise proper control over the use of an airfield.

The LGO concluded in her report that the local authority had missed a number of opportunities to take action over the operation of Bagby Airfield, which had been run in contravention of the relevant planning permission for several years.

Planning permission had been granted for the airfield in 1980. But this was limited to a named person and to a certain number of flights (40 take-offs and 40 landings a week).

The named person left Bagby in 1997 but flights carried on.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that Hambleton did not monitor the number of flights, despite Government guidance that says planning conditions should be enforceable.

There was also no definitive record of the number of flights during any given period. The operator and the council could not agree an estimate either, although it was acknowledged that there had been frequently and significantly more flights that the original permitted number.

The LGO identified various opportunities to notice the unlawful use and for Hambleton to take action. These were that:

• From 1980 to 1997 council officers did not check on the personal element of the planning permission and did not make any arrangements for monitoring the number of flights;
• In 1996/97 they knew the individual named in the planning permission would no longer be involved, but did nothing about the fact the planning permission was limited to him personally;
• In 2001, officers told the operator he needed planning permission but took no further action;
• In 2005, the Enforcement Officer wrongly assessed that the 1980 planning permission still applied.

The unauthorised use has now become immune from enforcement action, the Ombudsman reported. She added that Hambleton had lost planning control over the number of aircraft using the airfield.

The LGO stressed the importance of planning control, pointing out that the Civil Aviation Authority cannot regulate the airfield and there was no power to enforce against noise created in the air.

Seex said: “Losing planning control over the use of land as an airfield is an extreme and most serious failure of planning administration.”

She added that Hambleton was guilty of maladministration, and that this had caused residents “the injustice of disturbance from flights and a sense of frustration and apprehension about the possibility of uncontrolled future expansion”.

The LGO recommended that the council should consider taking action to try and stop the current use of the airfield. This would include considering the possibility of a discontinuance order.

She also said the local authority should provide funding of up to £5,000 for each village of Bagby and Thirkleby for projects of community benefit. These projects are to be agreed with the respective parish councils.

Hambleton expects the results of research into the use of the main runway at Bagby to be available by the end of this month. It will then consider whether it can use that information for enforcement action to restrict the number of flights.

The council has already issued enforcement notices on a number of subsidiary uses of the airfield. The operator has appealed against those notices.

Philip Hoult