Concern over Wigan planning process errors

The planning committee heard the normal publicity process had not been gone through for the cases during the Covid-19 lockdown period.

Most of the 31 applications involved residents applying for extensions to their homes, although a small number were change of use or full planning requests.

Wigan Council has reviewed the situation, including writing to everyone who should have been notified, and concluded the error did not mean any applications that should not have gone through got approval.

Nevertheless, the incident has caused some concern among the Conservative group in the Wigan Council chamber,

Leader of the opposition Coun Michael Winstanley said: “This is quite worrying. I would have hoped the Business Continuation Plan would have sorted out things like this, especially when we are dealing with legal aspects of these planning issues.

“I understand things go wrong but this could have potentially had implications for the council from a financial perspective if there had been legal challenges to any of these decisions.

“This first came to light when we started getting phone calls from residents concerned about the process.”

Coun Winstanley suggested that the entire system of making representations to planners could do with an overhaul, saying many residents found the online portal hard to use and inaccessible.

However, the council said the web system was similar to one used by most local authorities and traditional letters could still be sent in for consideration.

The council said it has now apologised to those who were not notified about the planning applications close to their houses.

Rebecca Heron, director for economy and skills at Wigan Council, said: “We are confident appropriate steps have been taken to address this matter and a review of our system has taken place to ensure this does not reoccur.

“All neighbouring properties affected have now had chance to submit their observations.

“All applications have been reviewed and in all cases no material considerations were raised which would have changed the outcome of the planning permission. Therefore there is no further action to be taken.”