Council Apology for delay in unlawful bedsits probe

BRISTOL City Council has apologised after being rapped by watchdogs for “unreasonable delays” in investigating illegal bedsits.

The Local Government Ombudsman upheld a complaint by a resident who was left “frustrated and disappointed” that the local authority took too long to launch enforcement action against many suspected unlawful student digs in his neighbourhood.

A council meeting was told a set of remedies to redress the “injustice” had been agreed with the ombudsman, including beefing up the team that probes alleged breaches of planning regulations for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).

The authority was also told to apologise to the complainant and monitor and review its plan to deal with a backlog of enforcement cases to ensure it was adequately resourced, along with reporting ongoing progress and the ruling to the cross-party growth and regeneration scrutiny commission.

The ombudsman’s report said: “Mr X complained the council was taking too long to investigate complaints about unlawful HMOs in its area. We found fault because there was unreasonable delay in enforcement investigations.

“Mr X says that in recent years, there has been a rapid growth of HMOs in the area.

“He said he reported a large number of houses he thought were unlawful to the council’s planning enforcement department but became frustrated with the lack of progress.”

The report said that in response to the complaint the council accepted there was a problem caused by several factors, including a backlog of cases during the pandemic, limited staff resources, a sudden increase in case numbers and the responsibility for monitoring small HMOs switching departments from environmental health to planning enforcement.

City council head of development control, Gary Collins, told the commission meeting on March 31 that the resident’s complaints about unlawful HMOs in May 2020 were among a “large volume” that had built up at the authority at the time when there was pressure on resources two months into the pandemic.

He said: “Within the decision the ombudsman recognises planning enforcement is a discretionary power and that formal action is only required when that would be a proportionate response to the alleged breach of planning control, and that the duty for weighing that up is for local authorities to look at the harm being caused by the breach and whether planning permission for that breach would be granted.

“It also encourages local authorities to resolve local issues through negotiation and dialogue. However, the ombudsman said it’s important there is not an unreasonable delay in the enforcement process because enforcement effectively maintains public confidence in the wider planning system.”

Mr Collins said it was important that HMO licensing and HMO planning enforcement were as aligned as possible and that the two teams were working closely on this.

He said: “At the moment we have 51 cases relating to alleged HMOs in breach of planning permission, of which 13 have now been visited and 12 of those have received follow-up correspondence. We’ve received eight responses and eight additional assessments have been made. It’s a belated but decent start of working through the backlog.”