The Ombudsman's Report Has Arrived

On the 17th January 2007 permission for the redevelopment of the Memorial Stadium was approved on an on-balance basis by Bristol City Council's Development Committee (North).

An on-balance decision means that the anticipated benefits of a development to a city or region outweigh the adverse impacts of that development to local communities, though in many cases mitigation (as specified by an S106 agreement or conditions) is necessary to reduce these impacts.

Whilst an on-balance decision is a perfectly legitimate outcome for a planning application, there were many issues associated with the 17th January meeting which gave many residents grounds for concern and suspicion. These concerns led to formal complaints to the Council and finally to these complaints being sent to the Local Government Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman's report has now been published and the Finding says:

Maladministration causing injustice

Recommended remedy

The Council is to review the implementation of its policies and procedures in respect of:

consultation on planning applications;
consideration of environmental impact;
substitution of Members on Planning Committees; and
its Planning Code of Conduct.

Whilst the Ombudsman does not consider the above administrative failures undermine the actual planning decision, the finding is nevertheless significant.

It should be noted that the Ombudsman's view and recommendations are based on comment and evidence supplied by HorfieldROSE and other residents.

The evidence was found by searching Council files, using Freedom of Information requests, and hundreds of hours of research into statutes, codes of conduct, etc., followed by the Ombudsman's Officers investigating the complaint with the Council.

We accept the Ombudsman's report fully, and must say thankyou to the Ombudsman and all the Ombudsman's officers who have been involved in the Investigation over the past 18 months. Not an easy task for the Ombudsman's office given the complexity of the complaint and one that must have taken considerable resources to complete. Thanks again.

The final chapter has therefore been reached regarding the 17th January 2007 meeting with the publication of the Ombudsman's report. We are now putting all our resources into the next two sequels to the Memorial Stadium saga, taking into consideration the findings of the Ombudsman.

We have already sent to the Council a complaint concerning the Development Control meeting of the 2nd April 2008. And, of course, we are endeavouring to get a full and proper response from the Council over the announcement by Bristol Rovers on the 23rd October 2008, that they now plan to develop the stadium in phases whilst both the Football and Rugby teams remain in residence.

When HorfieldROSE decided on the 17th January 2007 to continue opposition to the Commercial, Residential and Stadium development on the Memorial Ground, we knew there would be a long road ahead, but we did not anticipate the work involved or the difficulties we would encounter, but the campaign against the decision to allow the redevelopment has been reinforced by our research, the Ombudsman's report, and recent announcements concerning the phased built of the development, and we intend to fight on.

HorfieldROSE

You can see the summary and download the full report from Local Government Ombudsman's site.