Summary
Mr C complained that the council had handled a planning application inappropriately under the wrong section of planning legislation and failed to properly screen it to see if it required an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
We found that the council had acknowledged that it had failed to handle the application properly, or to screen it for an EIA as required. We upheld both aspects of Mr C's complaint. However, we were not satisfied that the actions proposed by the council were sufficiently robust to prevent a reoccurrence, and so we made further recommendations in order to ensure the relevant learning was embedded within the council's planning procedures.
Recommendations
What we said should change to put things right in future: The council should ensure they have adequate checks in place to prevent planning applications being processed inappropriately.
The council should ensure they have adequate checks in place to ensure planning applications are screened appropriately for EIAs.
We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201803735 as a PDF (25.15 KB) Updated: October 23, 2019