LGO slams council for "inexcusable" destruction of statutory planning records
The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised a local authority for an “extraordinary and inexcusable” act of maladministration after it wrongly destroyed a range of statutory planning records.
An investigation by the LGO, Anne Seex, found that a former senior planning officer at Warrington Council had arranged to destroy records that formed part of the council’s statutory planning register.
The destruction of these documents means that Warrington now has no record of plans and applications approved before 1996. The council’s decision notices were retained but – in the absence of the plans and applications – these do not record what has been approved.
The investigation was launched after two householders in a small cul-de-sac complained that Warrington had failed to deal properly with planning applications and breach of planning control by someone developing land near their homes.
The complainants claimed that as a result of this development they had lost the peace and security they previously enjoyed.
The LGO's report said investigators found a number of failures in the way Warrington handled the issues of vehicular access to the site, the renewal of planning permission, the enforceability of planning conditions attached to the planning permission, and the taking of enforcement action.
In addition to the maladministration of destroying statutory records, the Ombudsman found the Council had acted with maladministration in:
- having no record of the plans it approved in 1997
- approving an application from the developer to renew the planning permission in 2002 when the plans submitted were incompatible with conditions imposed in 1997
- failing to consider and apply Government guidance in Circular 11/95 and perpetuating a condition that was unenforceable
- failing to act on the assurances it gave to the residents of the cul-de-sac, making incorrect and misleading statements about permitted development rights, disregarding the legitimate expectations it raised for the residents
- failing to record reasons for officer decisions not to take enforcement action, and
- providing incorrect and misleading information to the planning control committee when it considered a report from the Neighbourhood Police Inspector.
After seeing the LGO’s draft report, Warrington agreed to serve a planning contravention notice on the developer about the access from the cul-de-sac and to submit a comprehensive report to the planning control committee about enforcement.
The LGO recommended that the local authority should serve this notice before the end of July 2011. It also called on Warrington to apologise to the complainants and pay them each £5,000. This was in recognition of the negative impact of the development on their amenity and the time and trouble caused to them in pursuing their complaint, she said.
Seex said: “It was an extraordinary and inexcusable act of maladministration for the Council to destroy records that it had a statutory duty to hold and make available for public inspection.”
The Ombudsman also expressed grave concern that the destruction of the documents represented a “significant and very serious failure of corporate governance”.
Planning authorities have had a statutory duty since 1947 to hold the documents in question.
A spokeswoman for Warrington said the council did not dispute the findings of the LGO's investigation. "We are in the process of deciding what action should be taken in order to improve matters and cannot comment further at this time."