The chairman of a planning authority has withdrawn his own planning application after being informed it would not be approved.
Councillor Arshad Hussain is head of Bradford Area Planning Panel, which makes decisions on planning applications in the Bradford area.
He applied to construct a new build home between two existing older houses in Nab Wood Street, Bradford. The submitted plans detailed a three storey, detached property which was just four metres (13 feet) wide.
The application went before the Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel, and one council colleague described it as “ridiculous”. He was subsequently told that he had “pretty much nil chance” of having the plans approved.
Several formal reasons to recommend refusal of the application were provided by officers, including that the garden would have been located in the greenbelt, the house would be a “cramped and incongruous form of development” and there was no impact assessment on trees or biodiversity.
One planning officer said that the “very tall, austere brick wall” that would be the view from neighbouring properties meant any proposal to build a house on the site stood “pretty much nil” chance of approval.
Mr Hussain said he had commissioned surveys to address the issues raised by the planning panel and requested a deferral of their decision. However, he withdrew the application, being told that to persist with the application would “set a bad example”.
One wonders why a person tasked with making decisions on the planning applications of others might think, considering the reaction of his colleagues, that his own application might be acceptable? Perhaps his role on the planning panel should be reconsidered?