£22,000 bill for planning defeats (From Gazette & Herald)

£22,000 bill for planning defeats

OVERTURNED planning decisions at the end of last year will cost Ryedale taxpayers more than £20,000, it has been revealed.

Government inspectors overruled the council in 75 per cent of planning appeals decided in the last quarter of 2005. Now the local authority has been ordered to foot the bill in two of those cases - and expensive consultants' fees will leave it at least £22,000 out of pocket.

But council chiefs have defended the service. Planning committee chairman Howard Keal said the costs were a "blip" - and the planning service was still "heading in the right direction".

Last month the Gazette & Herald revealed that independent inspectors appointed by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had found against Ryedale District Council in 11 out of 14 appeals heard in October, November and December.

Since the beginning of July 2005, 10 out of 20 appeal decisions have gone against the council, compared with last year's national average of 32.65 per cent of overturned appeals.

In two cases, at the equestrian centre in York Road, Flaxton, and at Flamingo Land, the inspector ordered Ryedale District Council to pay both party's costs.

The Flamingo Land appeal will cost the council £2,222.90 to pay for its own experts - and £8,112.16 to pay for the theme park's costs. At Flaxton, the council will pay a total of £11,900 to its own consultants. The appellant's costs are not yet known, but are expected to run into thousands of pounds.

These figures do not take into account the time spent defending the appeals by the council's own in-house solicitor and officers.

Coun Keal admitted there were "clearly too many appeals" going against the council, but said the planning committee was doing a good job, and still on track to meet its targets.

He said: "Over the last decade, out of around 10,000 applications handled by the authority, only four have resulted in costs being awarded.

"Our decisions involve developments running into many millions of pounds. Over the course of a year it is inevitable in such an important process that there are costs which have to be made on occasions, but these are a drop in the ocean compared to the overall work being carried out."

Coun Keal added that according to the council's own figures, satisfaction with the planning service had gone up to 83 per cent from 67 per cent two years earlier. He also paid tribute to the "hard work and dedication" of planning committee members, who "ensure that Ryedale continues to be the gem that it is".

Updated: 10:59 Wednesday, January 04, 2006