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Taxpayers landed with £30,000 bill after council loses planning appeal
Taxpayers are facing a £30,000 costs bill after a property developer won an appeal to build 90 new homes in Wearside.
House builder Gladedale wants to build a mix of "affordable family homes" on a patch of land at Flodden Road, Ford Estate, Sunderland, but was twice knocked back for planning permission by city councillors.
The company was determined to go ahead with its project and successfully appealed to the Planning Inspectorate where inspector Christopher Checkley said the development met requirements.
Mr Checkley added: "An application for costs was made by the appellant, Gladedale (Sunderland) Ltd, against Sunderland City Council and it is the subject of a separate costs decision."
Keith Lowes, Sunderland City Council's head of planning, estimates the costs awarded will be somewhere in the region of 30,000.
The inspector's ruling brings to an end a long-running dispute about plans for the site.
Planners has originally told councillors to refuse Gladedale permission because they were unhappy about the type of homes and the impact they could have on wider redevelopment plans for the area.
But after further discussions they recommended the plans be approved.
Tory and Independent councillors, however, remained unconvinced. At a development control meeting, they voted to refuse – outnumbering their Labour colleagues by five to two.
Labour usually holds the majority on the committee, but the rest of their members had to leave the room after declaring an interest in the plans.
Their leader, Paul Watson, held the lease on an adjacent patch of land in Ford Estate at the time of the planning application and Gladedale's proposals could have affected the value of Coun Watson's land.
The council leader had already been caught up in a dispute about Gladedale's plans – which have now been axed – to buy the site of his business, The Ford and Hylton Social Club, from the council to build houses.
If the sale had gone ahead, it would have resulted in a large sum being paid to Coun Watson and his wife Susan, also a councillor, by Sunderland City Council, which holds the freehold on the site.
At the time of the decision to refuse Gladedale's application for Flodden Road, Labour councillor Graeme Miller accused the Tory and Independent councillors of playing politics.
Speaking at a meeting after Gladedale won its appeal, he called all them to apologise to taxpayers for wasting their money by twice refusing to accept advice from planning officers.
"I think they should consider saying they were wrong and apoligising to the taxpayers of this city who have to carry the can to the tune of 30,000."
Conservative councillors Margaret Forbes, Michael Dixon and Alan Wright and Independent councillor Sheila Ellis were furious at Coun Miller's remarks.
Coun Forbes said councillors had to do what they thought was right, but unfortunately this time the planning inspector had not agreed.
Coun Ellis said if Coun Miller believed councillors must always act on the decisions of officers then he could not believe in democracy.
She added that there would be little point in holding planning meetings and voting on applications if planning officers' decisions were the only ones that should count.
Speaking after the meeting, Coun Wright said Coun Miller was "out of order" for asking for an estimate of costs as it was not yet clear how much this would be.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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