This article is from page 20 of the 2006-07-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
CLARE County Council yesterday said it had no record of a report from the Ombudsman outlining its handling of the administration of named planning applications in 2002.
According to the summary of a response to a complaint brought by David McNamara to the Ombudsman and seen by The Clare People there were a number of errors on the part of the council in its handling of the administration of two specific planning applications.
In the document the Ombudsman said her examination showed there were a number of errors on the part of the council in its handling of the planning applications P02/590 and P02/591 “including the date stamping documents, the handling of the fees in relation to the applications and in particular the information provided to you on April 9 2002 and April 12 2002.’
“The errors which occurred contributed to your sense of grievance and unfair treatment and to your submission being late,” she told Mr McNamara.
“Your late submission was refused by the council and this refusal resulted in your ineligibility to appeal the council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála.
“In light of this, my office asked the council to review its handling of the matter and to advise my office of the steps it has taken to ensure that the errors which occurred in this case do not re-occur and to state the redress it would propose to offer to you,” the document continued.
The Ombudsman also told the Parteen man that, “The council has outlined its current practices regarding the receipting, stamping and validation of applications and the handling of fees for invalid applications. These have been referred to in some detail above. The systemic issues arising in your complaint have been addressed by the council and it is hoped that the event which occurred in you case will not reoccur.”