THE OMBUDSMAN got it wrong when she rapped Burnley Council for using planning laws to close a footpath, a town hall chief has said.

Local Government watchdog Patricia Thomas, said the council decision to treat the closure of a small path in Annarlay Fold, Worsthorne, where neighbours had been plagued by noisy teenagers, as a development, was a 'convenient fiction' and resulted in maladministration which could potentially cause injustice.

She has recommended the council pay £250 compensation to a man who complained about the closure procedure on behalf of the Ramblers' Association.

But council director of support services Susan Walsh, while accepting other procedural errors highlighted by the Commissioner for Local Administration, questioned her decision that the council used the wrong legislation in its attempt to close the path.

In a report to the development control sub-committee, she said it was a difficult legal issue, but added: "I believe, however, in this case, the council acted reasonably in trying to balance the needs of residents to be protected from anti-social behaviour with the needs of genuine footpath users."

She said but for the other errors, she did not agree with the Ombudsman's finding of maladministration by the council.

She did, however, recommend the authority to pay out compensation to the complainant on the other counts.

In her report, she accepted the council failed to make the householder who requested the path closure aware of the need to obtain a Footpath Closure Order and that it failed to consult the Ramblers' Association.

"These errors clearly should not have occurred and it does not seem unreasonable that the complainant be made the payment suggested by the Ombudsman," she added.

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