Local Government

We asked Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council to take a number of learning points from our investigation into the way it dealt with a complaint that a wind turbine breached planning control.

Derry City and Strabane District Council has been criticised for not making contemporaneous records  over whether to carry out a Habitat Regulation Assessment during a planning case.

We found that failings by Ards and North Down Borough Council resulted in delays to a golf club’s planning application.

We reminded Mid and East Antrim Borough Council of its record keeping responsibilities following our investigation of a complaint brought by an MLA.  We also asked it to consider developing a formal policy around the role of public representatives in the planning process.

We investigated a complaint about the way Belfast City Council dealt with claims of a breach of planning control.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council failed to provide an applicant with the reasons why its Planning Committee deferred a decision on his planning application.  An Ombudsman’s report was also critical of excessive delays when responding to the applicant’s concerns.

The Ombudsman has criticised aspects of the way Mid & East Antrim Borough Council handled a planning application for an update of existing sports facilities at St Patrick’s College, Ballymena.

The Ombudsman has found that an application to build a residential nursing home in County Down was, in part, incorrectly assessed by planners.

The Ombudsman has upheld a complaint about the way planning officials within Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council dealt with changes to a planning application for a new dwelling.

An investigation by the Public Services Ombudsman has found that Mid & East Antrim Borough Council dealt properly with a planning application for a house extension, despite objections from the applicant’s neighbours.