Council hits back over injustice claim
Jun 3 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal
ACOUNCIL has hit back at an “unreasonable” Government report that accuses it of causing injustice through maladministration.
Tynedale Council also said the Local Government Ombudsman report into a planning application to in a rural part of the district was “inappropriate and unwarranted” in its suggestions. Earlier this month The Journal reported how the ombudsman had accused the council of causing an injustice by failing to prevent the erection of 1,600 metres of overhead power line, with 12 electricity poles, close to Ninebanks, in the Tyne Valley.
The ombudsman’s report said that the council’s failure to follow planning policy had allowed the wires to be put up in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
And the council was told that it should remove the lines and install a wind turbine, at its own cost, to rectify the situation.
But now a report prepared by council chiefs defends the authority’s stance. Helen Winter, director of planning at Tynedale Council, said: “While we accept that there has been maladministration, we do not accept that this has led to injustice, and in any event we believe that the remedy proposed by the ombudsman is out of proportion to the consequences.
“This council has an excellent record on the outcome of complaints to the ombudsman, in only one other case has a complaint been upheld against the council in the last eight years.”
The report also said that the ombudsman had not given “any detailed reasons” as to why it concluded that injustice has occurred.
The ombudsman had said that the council should have insisted on the wind turbine before the original application was allowed, and that failure to do so had caused a “reduction in the amenity of the area”. But the council said it would have been “inappropriate and unwarranted” to ban the cables, and “unreasonable” to require prior construction of the turbine.
The original application was made in 2002, to convert a derelict farm building into a home. Brian Summers owns the land where the lines were put up, although he has subsequently sold the property served by the cables.
He has told The Journal that there is no ill feeling among the community about the cables. Ombudsman Anne Seex declined to comment yesterday.
