Local authority misjudges impact of golf course scheme

A council which failed to appreciate that the need to deliver infill material to the site of a new golf course would involve thousands of lorry journeys through a residential area, has been criticised by the local government watchdog.

A local resident complained to the Local Government Ombudsman over the way Plymouth City Council handled the planning application for the golf course.

The complainant's home backs onto a road, part of which is used as a route for construction traffic, including heavy lorries carrying infill material for the golf course. The lorries have posed a number of problems: noise, mud and dust.

The operation for the delivery of infill material for the course has involved around 66,000 lorry journeys, sometimes more than 120 a day over three years.

The watchdog found maladministration causing injustice and recommended the council paid the resident £1,000 in recognition at his sense of "outrage" because he was not given an opportunity to make representations about the detailed traffic implications of the scheme.

The ombudsman did not conclude that planning permission would have been refused if residents and the planning committee had been aware of the infill operation before granting permission. However, the watchdog agreed that residents were deprived of an opportunity to make representations on that aspect of the scheme.

Meanwhile in a separate case, Oxford City Council has agreed to pay compensation to a couple for its failure to record how it had considered the impact of their neighbour's extension when it granted planning permission.

The couple will be awarded £750 and the council has agreed to issue guidance to its officers to avoid any repetition.

More information about the ombudsman ‘construction traffic for new golf course' case

Find out more about the Ombudsman ‘impact of neighbour's extension case' 

Roger Milne

15 December 2006