Investigation reports

We asked Mid and East Antrim Council to apologise to a man for failures in the way it dealt with a planning application.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council failed to fully record the reasons why it approved a planning application for a domestic garage.  However, we found it would not have reached a different decision had the failings not occurred.

A man claimed Belfast City Council should have asked his neighbour to remove a structure on his driveway.

Although the Council was not required to take action, we found it should have explained to the man why.

We found that a consultation response to a planning application should have been made available on the Planning Portal website.  While this was a record keeping error by the Belfast Planning Service, we found no grounds to question its decision to approve the 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.

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.

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.