North Yorkshire Council paid out 'significant sums of money' after losing planning appeals
North Yorkshire Council has had to pay out “significant sums of money” after losing planning appeals to housing developers, a senior council told colleagues today.
Councillor Mark Crane, executive member for open to business, spoke about the challenges faced by the authority amid criticism of the council’s planning department from communities in the Selby area.
In November, members of Eggborough Parish Council resigned en masse amid anger over the unitary authority’s handling of a planning application in their community.
In a strongly worded letter to the council, Sherburn in Elmet Town Council claimed its community appeared “forgettable” in Northallerton, where North Yorkshire Council has its headquarters.
It claimed the council’s planning consultations with parish and town councils were a “glorified box-ticking exercise” and accused planning officers of producing reports that were “at best sub-standard” and that “read like long-form campaigning leaflets” to support the applications.
The criticisms were made after developers successfully appealed against the council’s refusal to allow large housing schemes in the town.
Speaking about the criticism, Coun Crane said the authority was under “huge pressure” from the government to build more houses.
He added: “When we have refused planning permission, we have lost the appeals and it has cost this council money.
“When we make planning decisions, whether or not the parish or town council is in agreement, we have to bear in mind all the information we have.
“If we do refuse, we will likely go to appeal, and we have to have enough information and enough good reasons to refuse the planning permission to stand a chance at the appeal.
“If we don’t, as we have learned recently, we not only lose the appeal, but costs are awarded against us, and some of those can be fairly significant sums of money.”
Reacting to the comments, Councillor Alex Tant-Brown, vice chair of Sherburn in Elmet Town Council, said he felt there had been a “stark unwillingness” to defend the decisions of the planning committee at appeal.
He added: “For the first appeal for 106 homes off Rochester Row and Bartlett View they didn’t even bring the highways officer, despite it being refused on highways grounds.
“They also didn’t bring anyone from their legal team — it was shambolic.”
Coun Tant-Brown said the authority conceded all points for another appeal on a decision to reject plans for 66 houses in Garden Lane, a week before the hearing.
“We were incredibly disappointed by their attempts, if we could call them attempts,” he added.