Case 200801193 & 200801194 - Brecon Beacons National Park & Powys County Council

Summary

1. Mr O, a property developer, complained that in July 2008 Powys County Council moved a family of Gypsies onto land adjacent to his own within the Brecon Beacons National Park and developed it without planning consent from the National Park Authority and without a development licence from the Welsh Assembly Government. He said that the unauthorised development had had a detrimental effect on his company‟s efforts to market its own development. He was concerned that enforcement action was not taken by the Authority and that there was a delay until April 2009 before a retrospective planning application made by the Council, which led to temporary consent for the site, was determined by the Authority. He also felt that information provided by the Authority‟s planning officers about the prospects of another permanent site had unfairly influenced the planning committee‟s decision to approve the temporary site for the family‟s use in the meantime.

2. The Council said it had urgently needed to move the family from a lorry park site in Brecon to the land available to it adjacent to Mr O‟s property while it sought to identify and develop a more suitable permanent site for them. Whilst the Ombudsman recognised the need to move the family from the lorry park site he upheld the complaint as he considered that sufficient information was available to the Council for it to have prepared a planning application for the temporary site in advance of the move. As it was, a retrospective application was made but it was not considered and approved until eight months later because of staffing shortages at the Authority. That delay was unacceptable and the Ombudsman considered that it would have caused uncertainty for Mr O and his company who were keen to develop and market its own site. Both bodies agreed to pay £250 each to Mr O to reflect those difficulties.

3. In the same period the Council had identified a suitable permanent site for the family which required planning consent before it could be developed. The Ombudsman was satisfied that this information was properly made available to the Authority‟s planning committee when it considered the application for the temporary site. He did not uphold the complaint that the committee had been unfairly influenced into thinking that the proposed site would definitely be available to the family. The Ombudsman later learnt that consent to develop the proposed site had been refused. He therefore urged the Council to promptly consider alternative measures and suitable sites for the family to avoid ongoing long-term use of the temporary site.

Case 200801193 & 200801194 - Brecon Beacons National Park & Powys County Council (PDF: 306.98Kb)

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