Opposition councillors say an inquiry should be launched
Conservatives say an anonymous whistleblower alerted officers to the error(Image: Getty)
A Leicestershire council leader has blamed “human error” as the cause for a “serious breach” of planning rules relating to an approved application for her home. Opposition councillors say the incident is far from an “administrative oversight” and have called for an inquiry.
Councillor Samia Haq, the leader of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council (OWBC), claimed her agent had “made a mistake” filling in the application form for the 1.3m-deep, single-storey front garage extension at 117A Gartree Road, Oadby. The application, made in June, was prepared and submitted by the agent on behalf of Coun Haq’s husband, Leicester City Councillor Zuffar Haq, and was approved by OWBC officers in August.
However, Conservative councillors at OWBC have “condemned” the the lack of “required scrutiny” the application should have faced. They have hit out at the Liberal Democrat leadership of the council, saying “a serious breach of planning rules allowed planning permission to be wrongly granted” for Coun Haq’s extension.
Samia Haq, Liberal Democrat leader of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
In a report to OWBC’s full council meeting last week, it revealed that a complaint under the members’ code of conduct was received on Wednesday, August 13. This queried the granting of the permission “under officers’ delegated authority” and found that following investigation, the application form – which should have disclosed any relationship to a member of the council – “was not completed correctly by the planning agent”.
Applications relating to council members should be referred to OWBC’s development control committee, but this was not followed in this case, the report found. The investigation concluded that permission had been issued in error due to “an administrative and procedural oversight” in what was called an “inadvertent mistake by the planning agent”.
However, the report made clear that officers were satisfied “there was no finding or suggestion of any deliberate act or impropriety” on Coun Haq, her husband or the agent’s part in a bid to “elicit preferential treatment”.
Opponents on the council have criticised the findings though, with Conservatives saying the approval of the extension was a “a serious breach of planning rules” which allowed the planning permission to be “wrongly granted” and without necessary scrutiny. They claimed the breach only came to light due to an “anonymous whistleblower” and that both Coun Haq and her husband should have known better.
Councillor Naveed Alam, leader of the Conservative Group, said: “This isn’t just an administrative oversight – it’s a complete failure of governance at the highest level. Both Coun Haq and her husband are seasoned councillors who should have known full well that the application had to go before the planning committee.
“Instead, it slipped through the back door – and it took an anonymous tip-off for anyone to act. Blaming the agent for an ‘admin error’ is a weak excuse. Once they received a letter granting permission, they had a duty to report the breach. They did nothing.”
Councillor Naveed Alam,(Image: Oadby and Wigston Borough)
The Conservatives have called for an inquiry into the breach, but say the Lib Dem-run council has reportedly “shut it down” according to Coun Alam. He said: “Residents deserve confidence in the integrity of the planning system – and right now, that trust is hanging by a thread.”
The Conservative group said it is now urging the council to “revisit the decision to block an inquiry” and is calling on Coun Haq herself to publicly explain how the breach “was allowed to happen”.
In a statement to LeicestershireLive, Coun Haq said: “In essence it was a minor application to extend the existing garage by one metre. The application was decided according to policy but because it relates to a member it should have come to committee for approval. The agent made a mistake in filling the application form and due to that human error it was missed but as soon as it came to our attention correct procedure was followed.”
We also asked OWBC over the Conservative group’s claims and whether the council would revisit the decision to block an inquiry. Adrian Thorpe, head of the built environment at OWBC, added: “Planning Officers received this application and initially correctly approved it based on the information provided. When it came to light that an error had been made on the application form and this property was owned by the council leader, the process to revoke this approval began, as is the standard process in this situation.”
Neither Coun Haq, Mr Thorpe or the council directly addressed calls from the Conservatives for a new inquiry into the matter.
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