collusion between councillors.

Question

This is a bit of an sticky situation..

Two members of a parish councillor, one being the chairman are involved.

The councillor is working on a house that does not have planning permisssion for the job being carried out now.  The chairman of the Parish Council is Project Managing the job.

Originally the house was purchased by the counillor and his then wife after the death of the owner in February 2000.    The house was then rebuilt inside to join it to the house next door which the councillor owned making it one large property.

 

Now the house is being put back to two houses, planning permission was applied for in December 2012, verified in January 2013 and still pending.

 

On Checking with the Chariman an ex member of the council was told planning permission given in 1996 was still valid, surely this would apply to the person that had the house originally and it would not have included making the two house one or returning the to there origin state.

 

Please advise what you feel should be happening here, the men involved are great friends and are known to have swayed decisions on the Parish Council to suit them.

 

Thank you in advance..

Answer 1

One thing at least is fairly clear.  In general, planning permission applies to a property and not to a person.  You do not have to own a property in order to apply for planning permission.

The only way to fully resolve the planning questions would be to talk to the planning authority, usually the district council.  If there is a question about whether changes are being made that do not have permission, the planning authority may take enforcement action.  Although if permission has been applied for, the authority may be content to await its conclusion before taking any action.  Even if it had not, the authority might have processed a retrospective application before taking any enforcement action.

Standards for councillors are uncertain under the new regime.  However, it seems that the councillor you mention has a clear pecuniary interest in the matter, and likely that the chairman also does.  If that is so, then if they were to involve themselves in parish council decisions on the same matter, they could be committing a criminal offence.