Watchdog raps planners (From Stroud News and Journal)

Watchdog raps planners

EBLEY Mill has been rapped by a government watchdog and ordered to pay £1,000 in damages after it was found to have mishandled a planning application.

A report from the local government ombudsman has slammed top Stroud District Council officers for making planning decisions without taking proper records.

The investigation followed a complaint from a district homeowner who was outraged when planners approved a neighbouring extension despite the fact it towered over his garden.

Planners approved the application in March 2004 without making full records and presented an error-strewn report to the deciding officer, according to the ombudsman.

And the watchdog's report, sure to embarrass council planners, urges a rethink of council planning policy after condemning officers for taking delegated decisions without making detailed records of their meetings.

"Decisions taken by officers under delegated authority should be as well documented as those taken by a committee," said the report.

"Records should enable someone not involved in the decision to understand the reason for it and who was involved in taking it."

The report says Ebley Mill has agreed to apologise for the way it treated the homeowner, who cannot be identified and to pay him £1,000 in compensation.

Dave Marshall, spokesman for Stroud District Council, said: "This is the first time that the ombudsman's judgement has gone against us.

"There is no suggestion that the actual outcome of the application would have been any different. The issue is the way we handled it.

"We are obviously reviewing our procedures to make sure the same thing does not happen again."

Planners at Stroud District Council deal with more than 2,000 planning applications a year.