A GOVERNMENT Minister has admitted that the planning department “makes mistakes” but it will not be going back on a decision it made regarding a Heritage Homes planning issue which was contested by neighbours.
Phil Gawne told Tynwald yesterday that he accepted there was a need to improve the procedures for the planning appeals process and that the Department of Infrastructure was looking at how to ensure the procedures were being correctly followed.
Dudley Butt MLC asked questions on a planning appeal lodged by a Peel couple - Mr and Mrs Trevor Cowin - claiming there were “obvious errors” in the procedures during their appeal which was eventually dismissed.
He also said that the manner in which Mr and Mrs Cowin had been informed of their appeal being dismissed was “appalling” in that they simply received a copy of a letter addressed to Heritage Homes saying that the company had won the appeal.
An abrupt response from Mr Gawne did not diffuse the situation when he said, “Such a notice surely indicated that permission had been granted to Heritage Homes and the appeal was dismissed.
“There is absolutely no reason why this should be taken any further.”
After a number of MHKs made further comments about the lack of courtesy often shown by the planning department and its officers, Mr Gawne admitted that there were “unfortunate” slips from time to time.
He added, “We are doing everything we can to minimise mistakes and working on this with the Chief Secretary’s Office . . . there is a general agreement that there could be occasional mistakes. Everyone gets it wrong from time to time.”
