Complaint No
(05/C/13355) against Carlisle City Council
14th May
2007
Maladministration causing injustice
Carlisle City
Council failed to take action over a developer’s failure to produce
a landscaping scheme for a site. The Ombudsman said “There is no
point in including a condition in a planning permission if the
Council has no intention of enforcing it.” She also said that the
complaint had “exposed some matters of more general public concern”
about tree protection issues.
‘Mr J’ (real names
are not used) lived on a large private housing development. He
complained about a number of issues relating to the planning
permission for the development, in particular that the Council
failed to take effective action over the non-implementation of
planning conditions, and that it failed to protect trees on the
site.
The Ombudsman
upheld some of his allegations. She found the Council failed to
enforce the landscaping conditions, but that the injustice that
flowed from this was not as great as Mr J believed, commenting “The
developers appear overall to have created a pleasant environment to
the satisfaction of the vast majority of residents.”
She found that
protected trees were removed without clear indication in the
Council’s files as to the reasons, and permission to fell diseased
trees was not made conditional on replanting. In one case,
permission was given to fell the wrong tree.
The Ombudsman found
maladministration causing injustice and, in accordance with her
recommendations, the Council agreed to:
-
consider
including in its policy a statement that landscaping conditions
will normally be enforced;
-
review its tree
protection procedures and report to the Ombudsman within three
months on what action it has taken; and
-
pay the
complainant £250 in recognition of his time and trouble in
pursuing his complaint.
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