Abrupt about-face by Government after Malmesbury planning appeal decision "issued in error" (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Abrupt about-face by Government after Malmesbury planning appeal decision "issued in error"

7:15pm Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News

A PLANNING inspector’s decision to allow 180-home development at Malmesbury was “issued in error” according to a government minister.
The ruling on an appeal by Gleeson Strategic Land for a site at Filands appeared to fly in the face of work by local people to draw up a neighbourhood plan as one of the Government’s frontrunners.
And it left the steering group responsible for drawing up the plan in disarray.
But this evening North Wilts MP James Gray reported: "A few moments ago, the Planning Minister, Nick Boles, rang me to say that the planning permission granted for the Gleeson development in Malmesbury had in fact been issued in error."
"He tells me that he gave written instructions last week for this planning application to be ‘called in’, in other words to be decided by the ministers personally.
“Through some mistake, that instruction apparently did not arrive at the Planning Inspectorate, who issued the permission incorrectly.
“The minister has now instructed the planning permission to be withdrawn and the application to be ‘called in’ for his personal decision."