Rutland County Council planning members refused to discuss a scheme for 65 homes in Oakham after additional information was provided ‘too late’

Councillors refused to consider a planning application for the final parcel of an Oakham development due to officers giving them information too late.

Rutland County Council's planning committee was supposed to consider the proposal by Allison Homes for 65 homes on land off Wheatfield Way in Oakham last night (March 18), but Coun Andrew Brown (Ind) led a proposal to postpone the application and consider it another time.

Officers had recommended the committee approve the application despite objections from flood officers, local highways and ecology experts. The papers that were submitted in a late addendum contained new information from the experts in which they had removed their objections.

Noticeably angry, Coun Brown said after returning home from work yesterday he did not have time to read the new document before the meeting started at 7pm. The additional papers had been sent to the committee shortly before 3pm.

He said: “I think it is completely unacceptable that we have had a 25 page addendum report, which is very detailed. I get home at 5.30pm to see this report and there is absolutely no chance of me reading it, so I cannot make a decision on this. This is a decision that will affect people’s lives and I cannot make a decision on that. So I want to propose a deferral.”

A number of other councillors on the committee also voiced their concerns. Coun Diane Ellison (Lib Dem) said the report was complicated and there had not been ‘fair opportunity to review it’ and Coun Raymond Payne (Lib Dem) said he did not have time to absorb all the information. Coun Steve McRobb (Labour) said when he was elected to the authority it was made clear to him that he was supposed to have read the material before he attended the meeting. Coun David Wilby (Con) said he felt sorry for the residents who had gone to the meeting to hear the outcome.

Planning officer Justin Jones apologised and said the information had come through after the agenda had been published and suggested the committee continue with hearing the application as the highways officer and flooding officer were in the room and could explain the report, but that suggestion was dismissed.

Coun Brown said: “The whole point in having the report in the first place is so that we can read it at our leisure and come up with questions to ask the officers and we do not have the opportunity to do that now.”

The committee voted to defer the decision.

The proposal included 26 assisted living units on a patch of land just under two acres. The assisted living homes will be located on the east of the site and separated from the rest of the development by an existing line of trees.

The majority of homes will be one bed, with a quarter of the total two bed and another quarter three bed units. The scheme was first given outline planning permission in 2011 and this application was about the finer details and layout.

The application will be decided at a later date.