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Investigation Report 200603584 200603889

  • Report no:
    200603584 200603889
  • Date:
    April 2008
  • Body:
    The Highland Council
  • Sector:
    Local Government

Overview

The complainants (Mr C and Mr B) raised a number of concerns about the way an outline planning application (the Application) for the Highland Housing Fair (the Fair) had been handled by The Highland Council (the Council).

Specific complaints and conclusions

The complaints which have been investigated are that:

  • (a) the Council failed to engage in adequate consultation with Inverness South Community Council (ISCC) and guidelines for consultation were not followed (not upheld);
  • (b) emails between Council officers, and Council officers and the applicant, show that the outcome of the Application was pre-judged (not upheld);
  • (c) details of the Application did not appear in the Council's Weekly List (not upheld);
  • (d) there was collusion in the planning process given that the applicant, Highland Housing Alliance (HHA), is funded by the Council (not upheld);
  • (e) planning permission should not have been granted as the land was marked as Green Wedge (refers to land covered by Policy 41 of the Council's Local Plan) in the Inverness Local Plan (the Local Plan) (not upheld);
  • (f) information (such as plot layout, house type and site analysis) which was available prior to the Inverness Area Planning Application Committee (the Committee) hearing on 30 January 2007 was not submitted to the Committee (not upheld);
  • (g) the outcome of the Application was a foregone conclusion as shown by the fact that the Report to the Committee was dated 12 January 2007 (not upheld);
  • (h) the Application inaccurately referred to the land in question as being vacant when it was in fact farmland (not upheld);
  • (i) there should have been developer contributions for the site as there was no benefit to the community from the development (not upheld);
  • (j) outline planning permission was granted prior to a report on road infrastructure being submitted by Transport Scotland (not upheld); and
  • (k) a link road had not yet been built and the cap for housing was at 600houses (not upheld).

Redress and recommendations

The Ombudsman has no recommendations to make.

Related reading

Updated: December 11, 2018