Compensation for planning error
A woman has been awarded £1,000 in compensation after Maidstone council failed to properly consider the effect on her home when it dealt with a planning application for 48 new homes on a field behind her property.
When permission was given for Countryside Properties to build new homes in Headcorn in 2015, councillors imposed several conditions, including that a line of hedging and trees between the new estate and existing homes in Oak Farm Gardens should remain until the developer had submitted and had approved a new landscaping plan.
The developer later asked for that condition to be lifted so old hedges and trees could be grubbed up, ready for new planting.
The council failed to determine this within the statutory eight weeks, so the developer was able to claim ‘deemed consent’, and went ahead, ripping up the greenery.
That left the new homes on the Kingsbridge development looking directly into Elaine Collins’ garden in Oak Farm Gardens.
After complaining, she took the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.
While the council granted retrospective approval for ripping out the trees, the ombudsman found her position had not been considered by the council.
A council spokesman said the authority accepted an error had been made.