Complaint to be made against planning decision as Judicial Review is too expensive

At a meeting of Guilsfield Community Council, on Tuesday November 17, councillors received an update of the findings of a task group, formed to probe a decision to give outline planning for nine homes on the site of Fairview Garage, a former petrol station in the centre of the village.

The council thought that the application was on hold due to the Covid-19 crisis, and had not given Powys County Council an opinion on the scheme before it was decided at a Planning committee meeting on October 1.

GCC Chairman, Councillor Ian Harrison, said: “We consulted planning lawyers.

“They said that to take the planning authority to judicial review to challenge the decision would cost somewhere between £20,000 and £40,000.

“There would be a danger if we lost then we would incur significant charges or cost of the defence.

“We decided not to pursue that as the risk was just too high.”

Councillor Harrison said the group had spoken to Planning Aid Wales.

They advised the council that they could make a formal complaint to PCC regarding the “failure” of process.

Councillor Harrison added: “I suggested missing out PCC and going straight to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

“But I was told the ombudsman wouldn’t deal with us until we’ve been through the formal complaint process.”

Councillor Harrison told the meeting that he recommended writing a letter of complaint to the county on the process and how poorly the community council had been treated in “a national emergency”.

He also thought that other community councils who also have planning issues with the county council might add their voices to a complaint.

Councillor Trevor Trevor (correct), said: “I support writing to object to the way we have been treated.

“It’s important that we write as soon as possible rather than gathering like-minded councils.

“We didn’t like the decision, but our objection is to the process and we’d need to find others councils who’ve had problems with process rather than result.”

The recommendation to make a formal complaint was approved.

At the planning meeting on October 1 lead professional planning officer, Peter Morris, said the community council had pointed out that the officer handling the application was giving them more time due to Covid-19.

They had not been able to discuss the application, as meetings had been cancelled from March until September due to the pandemic.

Mr Morris said that he understood the difficulties but the community council had been given enough time to respond.