A WOMAN who was left ‘feeling alone and like no-one was listening to her’ has been given an apology by council bosses at after a series of planning blunders.
An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) recorded inaccurate information about the woman’s neighbour’s controversial plans to extend their house, leaving her ‘stressed and upset’.
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The woman claimed the extension would leave her with a loss of light to two sides of her house because the development went beyond the rear of her property by 30cm, despite WBC officers saying this was not the case originally.
LGO watchdogs ordered WBC to apologise for publishing incorrect analysis in its planning report but suggested the authority was still right to give neighbour’s planning permission as the impact of the extension was “not harmful”.
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WBC officials were also criticized for delaying the upload of comments from the woman’s consultants and from the Parish Council.
Chiefs were forced to apologise for this and for not notifying the woman of the decision made by planning bosses.
WBC was supposed to inform the woman but did not, meaning she was checking the planning portal “for months” as they delayed publishing the decision notice.
The woman complained to the council about how they handled the case but failed to handle this process correctly too, and never sent a ‘stage 2’ response to the complainant.
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An apology was issued to the woman for the council’s problems in publishing inaccurate information, delaying comment uploads and the decision notice and for its complaint response failure.
According to the LGO, the woman was said to have been caused “frustration, time and trouble chasing the council” about these issues, which she found “stressful and upsetting” as she “felt alone and like no-one was listening to her.”
A Wokingham Borough Council spokesperson said: “The council has apologised to the neighbour.
“The planning officer’s recommendation is based on the officer’s appreciation of the positions of the buildings and the distances between them as viewed on site.
“In other words, the recommendation and subsequent decision is based on the true relationship between the properties.
“In addition, the aerial photos, the site visit photos and the approved plan all indicate that the rear of the two houses are roughly in line.
“Although a 30 cm difference is now known to exist, even if the application plans had been correct and/or if the planning officer had detected the difference when he was on site, the determination would have been the same. The application would have been approved regardless, as the 30cm difference does not significantly change the circumstances.”
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